fsesses  or 
'more  than 
rmore  than  a 
In,  a  room  full 
is  doomed  to 
Static    the    order   in 
le  lives. 
—  Ludwig  Lewisohn 


PHILIP  DURHAM 


THE  FRONTIER 
IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


BY 
FREDERICK  JACKSON  TURNER 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 
1921 


COPYRIGHT,  1920 

BY 
FREDERICK  J.  TURNER 


December,  1923. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


Annex 

o 
178 


TO 

CAROLINE  M.  TURNER 
MY  WIFE 


PREFACE 

In  republishing  these  essays  in  collected  form,  it  has  seemed 
best  to  issue  them  as  they  were  originally  printed,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  slight  corrections  of  slips  in  the  text  and 
with  the  omission  of  occasional  duplication  of  language  in  the 
different  essays.  A  considerable  part  of  whatever  value  they 
may  possess  arises  from  the  fact  that  they  are  commentaries  in 
different  periods  on  the  central  theme  of  the  influence  of  the 
frontier  in  American  history.  Consequently  they  may  have 
some  historical  significance  as  contemporaneous  attempts  of  a 
student  of  American  history,  at  successive  transitions  in  our 
development  during  the  past  quarter  century  to  interpret  tke 
relations  of  the  present  to  the  past.  Grateful  acknowledgment 
is  made  to  the  various  societies  and  periodicals  which  have 
given  permission  to  reprint  the  essays. 

Various  essays  dealing  with  the  connection  of  diplomatic 
history  and  the  frontier  and  others  stressing  the  significance  of 
the  section,  or  geographic  province,  in  American  history,  are 
not  included  in  the  present  collection.  Neither  the  French  nor 
the  Spanish  frontier  is  within  the  scope  of  the  volume. 

The  future  alone  can  disclose  how  far  these  interpretations 
are  correct  for  the  age  of  colonization  which  came  gradually 
to  an  end  with  the  disappearance  of  the  frontier  and  free  land. 
It  alone  can  reveal  how  much  of  the  courageous,  creative 
American  spirit,  and  how  large  a  part  of  the  historic  American 
ideals  are  to  be  carried  over  into  that  new  age  which  is  replac 
ing  the  era  of  free  lands  and  of  measurable  isolation  by  con 
solidated  and  complex  industrial  development  and  by  increas- 


PREFACE 

ing  resemblances  and  connections  between  the  New  World  and 
the  Old. 

But  the  larger  part  of  what  has  been  distinctive  and  valuable 
in  America's  contribution  to  the  history  of  the  human  spirit 
has  been  due  to  this  nation's  peculiar  experience  in  extending 
its  type  of  frontier  into  new  regions;  and  in  creating  peaceful 
societies  with  new  ideals  in  the  successive  vast  and  differing 
geographic  provinces  which  together  make  up  the  United  States. 
Directly  or  indirectly  these  experiences  shaped  the  life  of  the 
Eastern  as  well  as  the  Western  States,  and  even  reacted  upon  the 
Old  World  and  influenced  the  direction  of  its  thought  and  its 
progress.  This  experience  has  been  fundamental  in  the  eco 
nomic,  political  and  social  characteristics  of  the  American 
people  and  in  their  conceptions  of  their  destiny. 

Writing  at  the  close  of  1796,  the  French  minister  to  the 
United  States,  M.  Adet,  reported  to  his  government  that  Jeffer 
son  could  not  be  relied  on  to  be  devoted  to  French  interests, 
and  he  added:  "Jefferson,  I  say,  is  American,  and  as  such 
he  cannot  be  sincerely  our  friend.  An  American  is  the 
born  enemy  of  all  European  peoples."  Obviously  erroneous 
as  are  these  words,  there  was  an  element  of  truth  in  them.  If 
we  would  understand  this  element  of  truth,  we  must  study  the 
transforming  influence  of  the  American  wilderness,  remote 
from  Europe,  and  by  its  resources  and  its  free  opportunities 
affording  the  conditions  under  which  a  new  people,  with  new 
social  and  political  types  and  ideals,  could  arise  to  play  its 
own  part  in  the  world,  and  to  influence  Europe. 

FREDERICK  J.  TURNER. 
HARVARD  UNIVERSITY,  March,  1920. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN 

HISTORY 1 

II    THE  FIRST  OFFICIAL  FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSA 
CHUSETTS  BAY 39 

III  THE  OLD  WEST 67 

IV  THE  MIDDLE  WEST 126 

V    THE  OHIO  VALLEY  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY      .     .  157 

VI    THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  IN 

AMERICAN  HISTORY 177 

VII    THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  WEST 205 

VIII    DOMINANT  FORCES  IN  WESTERN  LIFE  ....  222 

IX    CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  THE  WEST  TO  AMERICAN  DE 
MOCRACY   243 

X    PIONEER  IDEALS  AND  THE  STATE  UNIVERSITY  .     .  269 

XI    THE  WEST  AND  AMERICAN  IDEALS 290 

XII    SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY      .     .     .  311 

XIII    MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY    .     .     .  335 

INDEX  .  361 


I 

THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY  * 

In  a  recent  bulletin  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Census  for 
1890  appear  these  significant  words:  "Up  to  and  including 
1880  the  country  had  a  frontier  of  settlement,  but  at  present 
the  unsettled  area  has  been  so  broken  into  by  isolated  bodies 
of  settlement  that  there  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  a  frontier 
line.  In  the  discussion  of  its  extent,  its  westward  movement, 
etc.,  it  can  not,  therefore,  any  longer  have  a  place  in  the  cen 
sus  reports."  This  brief  official  statement  marks  the  closing 
of  a  great  historic  movement.  Up  to  our  own  day  American 
history  has  been  in  a  large  degree  the  history  of  the  coloniza 
tion  of  the  Great  West.  The  existence  of  an  area  of  free  land, 
its  continuous  recession,  and  the  advance  of  American  settle 
ment  westward,  explain  American  development. 

1 A  paper  read  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Historical  Associa 
tion  in  Chicago,  July  12,  1893.  It  first  appeared  in  the  Proceedings 
of  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin,  December  14,  1893,  with 
the  following  note :  "  The  foundation  of  this  paper  is  my  article  en 
titled  '  Problems  in  American  History,'  which  appeared  in  The  Mgis, 
a  publication  of  the  students  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  Novem 
ber  4,  1892.  ...  It  is  gratifying  to  find  that  Professor  Woodrow  Wil 
son  —  whose  volume  on  '  Division  and  Reunion '  in  the  Epochs  of  Amer 
ican  History  Series,  has  an  appreciative  estimate  of  the  importance  of 
the  West  as  a  factor  in  American  history  —  accepts  some  of  the  views 
set  forth  in  the  papers  above  mentioned,  and  enhances  their  value  by 
his  lucid  and  suggestive  treatment  of  them  in  his  article  in  The  Forum, 
December,  1893,  reviewing  Goldwin  Smith's  '  History  of  the  United 
States.' "  The  present  text  is  that  of  the  Report  of  the  American  His 
torical  Association  for  1893,  199-227.  It  was  printed  with  additions 
in  the  Fifth  Year  Book  of  the  National  Herbart  Society,  and  in  vari 
ous  other  publications. 

1 


2          THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Behind  institutions,  behind  constitutional  forms  and  modi 
fications,  lie  the  vital  forces  that  call  these  organs  into  life 
and  shape  them  to  meet  changing  conditions.  The  peculi 
arity  of  American  institutions  is,  the  fact  that  they  have  been 
compelled  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  changes  of  an  expand 
ing  people  —  to  the  changes  involved  in  crossing  a  continent, 
in  winning  a  wilderness,  and  in  developing  at  each  area  of 
this  progress  out  of  the  primitive  economic  and  political  con 
ditions  of  the  frontier  into  the  complexity  of  city  life.  Said 
Calhoun  in  1817,  "  We  are  great,  and  rapidly  —  I  was  about 
to  say  fearfully  —  growing !  "  2  So  saying,  he  touched  the 
distinguishing  feature  of  American  life.  All  peoples  show 
development;  the  germ  theory  of  politics  has  been  sufficiently 
emphasized.  In  the  case  of  most  nations,  however,  the  de 
velopment  has  occurred  in  a  limited  area ;  and  if  the  nation  has 
expanded,  it  has  met  other  growing  peoples  whom  it  has  con 
quered.  But  in  the  case  of  the  United  States  we  have  a  differ 
ent  phenomenon.  Limiting  our  attention  to  the  Atlantic  coast, 
we  have  the  familiar  phenomenon  of  the  evolution  of  institu 
tions  in  a  limited  area,  such  as  the  rise  of  representative  gov 
ernment;  the  differentiation  of  simple  colonial  governments 
into  complex  organs;  the  progress  from  primitive  industrial 
society,  without  division  of  labor,  up  to  manufacturing  civiliza 
tion.  But  we  have  in  addition  to  this  a  recurrence  of  the 
process  of  evolution  in  each  western  area  reached  in  the  process 
of  expansion.  Thus  American  development  has  exhibited  not 
merely  advance  along  a  single  line,  but  a  return  to  primitive 
conditions  on  a  continually  advancing  frontier  line,  and  a  new 
development  for  that  area.  American  social  development  has 
been  continually  beginning  over  again  on  the  frontier.  This 
perennial  rebirth,  this  fluidity  of  American  life,  this  expansion 
westward  with  its  new  opportunities,  its  continuous  touch  with 
2  "  Abridgment  of  Debates  of  Congress,"  v,  p.  706. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER  3 

the  simplicity  of  primitive  society,  furnish  the  forces  dominat 
ing  American  character.  The  true  point  of  view  in  the  history 
of  this  nation  is  not  the  Atlantic  coast,  it  is  the  Great  West. 
Even  the  slavery  struggle,  which  is  made  so  exclusive  an 
object  of  attention  by  writers  like  Professor  von  Hoist,  occupies 
its  important  place  in  American  history  because  of  its  relation 
to  westward  expansion. 

In  this  advance,  the  frontier  is  the  outer  edge  of  the  wave  — 
the  meeting  point  between  savagery  and  civilization.  Much 
has  been  written  about  the  frontier  from  the  point  of  view  of 
border  warfare  and  the  chase,  but  as  a  field  for  the  serious 
study  of  the  economist  and  the  historian  it  has  been  neglected. 

The  American  frontier  is  sharply  distinguished  from  the 
European  frontier  —  a  fortified  boundary  line  running  through 
dense  populations.  The  most  significant  thing  about  the 
American  frontier  is,  that  it  lies  at  the  hither  edge  of  free  land. 
In  the  census  reports  it  is  treated  as  the  margin  of  that  settle 
ment  which  has  a  density  of  two  or  more  to  the  square  mile. 
The  term  is  an  elastic  one,  and  for  our  purposes  does  not  need 
sharp  definition.  We  shall  consider  the  whole  frontier  belt, 
including  the  Indian  country  and  the  outer  margin  of  the  "  set 
tled  area  "  of  the  census  reports.  This  paper  will  make  no 
attempt  to  treat  the  subject  exhaustively;  its  aim  is  simply 
to  call  attention  to  the  frontier  as  a  fertile  field  for  investiga 
tion,  and  to  suggest  some  of  the  problems  which  arise  in  con 
nection  with  it. 

In  the  settlement  of  America  we  have  to  observe  how  Euro 
pean  life  entered  the  continent,  and  how  America  modified 
and  developed  that  life  and  reacted  on  Europe.  Our  early 
history  is  the  study  of  European  germs  developing  in  an 
American  environment.  Too  exclusive  attention  has  been 
paid  by  institutional  students  to  the  Germanic  origins,  too 
little  to  the  American  factors.  The  frontier  is  the  line  of 


4          THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

most  rapid  and  effective  Americanization.  The  wilderness 
masters  the  colonist.  It  finds  him  a  European  in  dress,  indus 
tries,  tools,  modes  of  travel,  and  thought.  It  takes  him  from 
the  railroad  car  and  puts  him  in  the  birch  canoe.  It  strips  off 
the  garments  of  civilization  and  arrays  him  in  the  hunting 
shirt  and  the  moccasin.  It  puts  him  in  the  log  cabin  of  the 
Cherokee  and  Iroquois  and  runs  an  Indian  palisade  around 
him.  Before  long  he  has  gone  to  planting  Indian  corn  and 
plowing  with  a  sharp  stick;  he  shouts  the  war  cry  and  takes 
the  scalp  in  orthodox  Indian  fashion.  In  short,  at  the  fron 
tier  the  environment  is  at  first  too  strong  for  the  man.  He 
must  accept  the  conditions  which  it  furnishes,  or  perish,  and 
so  he  fits  himself  into  the  Indian  clearings  and  follows  the 
Indian  trails.  Little  by  little  he  transforms  the  wilderness, 
but  the  outcome  is  not  the  old  Europe,  not  simply  the  devel 
opment  of  Germanic  germs,  any  more  than  the  first  phenom 
enon  was  a  case  of  reversion  to  the  Germanic  mark.  The  fact 
is,  that  here  is  a  new  product  that  is  American.  At  first,  the 
frontier  was  the  Atlantic  coast.  It  was  the  frontier  of  Europe 
in  a  very  real  sense.  Moving  westward,  the  frontier  became 
more  and  more  American.  As  successive  terminal  moraines 
result  from  successive  glaciations,  so  each  frontier  leaves  its 
traces  behind  it,  and  when  it  becomes  a  settled  area  the  region 
still  partakes  of  the  frontier  characteristics.  Thus  the  advance 
of  the  frontier  has  meant  a  steady  movement  away  from  the 
influence  of  Europe,  a  steady  growth  of  independence  on 
American  lines.  And  to  study  this  advance,  the  men  who 
grew  up  under  these  conditions,  and  the  political,  economic, 
and  social  results  of  it,  is  to  study  the  really  American  part 
of  our  history. 

In  the  course  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  frontier  was 
advanced  up  the  Atlantic  river  courses,  just  beyond  the  "  fall 
line,"  and  the  tidewater  region  became  the  settled  area.  In 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER  5 

the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  another  advance 
occurred.  Traders  followed  the  Delaware  and  Shawnese 
Indians  to  the  Ohio  as  early  as  the  end  of  the  first  quarter  of 
the  century.3  Gov.  Spotswood,  of  Virginia,  made  an  expedi 
tion  in  1714  across  the  Blue  Ridge.  The  end  of  the  first  quarter 
of  the  century  saw  the  advance  of  the  Scotch-Irish  and  the 
Palatine  Germans  up  the  Shenandoah  Valley  into  the  west 
ern  part  of  Virginia,  and  along  the  Piedmont  region  of  the 
Carolinas.4  The  Germans  in  New  York  pushed  the  fron 
tier  of  settlement  up  the  Mohawk  to  German  Flats.5  In  Penn 
sylvania  the  town  of  Bedford  indicates  the  line  of  settlement. 
Settlements  soon  began  on  the  New1  River,  or  the  Great  Kana- 
wha,  and  on  the  sources  of  the  Yadkin  and  French  Broad.0 
The  King  attempted  to  arrest  the  advance  by  his  proclamation 
of  1763,7  forbidding  settlements  beyond  the  sources  of  the 
rivers  flowing  into  the  Atlantic;  but  in  vain.  In  the  period 
of  the  Revolution  the  frontier  crossed  the  Alleghanies  into 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  and  the  upper  waters  of  the  Ohio 
were  settled.8  When  the  first  census  was  taken  in  1790,  the 
continuous  settled  area  was  bounded  by  a  line  which  ran  near 
the  coast  of  Maine,  and  included  New  England  except  a  portion 
of  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire,  New  York  along  the  Hudson 

3  Bancroft  (1860  ed.),  iii,  pp.  344,  345,  citing  Logan  MSS.;  [Mitchell] 
*'  Contest  in  America,"  etc.  ( 1752 ) ,  p.  237. 

4  Kercheval,  "  History  of  the  Valley  ";  Bernheim,  "  German  Settlements 
in  the  Carolinas";  Winsor,  "Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  Amer 
ica,"  v,  p.  304;  Colonial  Records  of  North  Carolina,  iv,  p.  xx;  Weston, 
"  Documents   Connected  with  the  History  of  South  Carolina,"  p.  82 ; 
Ellis  and  Evans,  "  History  of  Lancaster  County,  Pa.,"  chs.  iii,  xxvL 

5  Parkman,    "Pontiac,"    ii;    Griffis,    "Sir    William    Johnson,"    p.    6; 
Simms's  "  Frontiersmen  of  New  York." 

6  Monette,  "  Mississippi  Valley,"  i,  p.  311. 

7Wis.  Hist.  Cols.,  xi,  p.  50;  Hinsdale,  "Old  Northwest,"  p.  121; 
Burke,  "Oration  on  Conciliation,"  Works  (1872  ed.),  i,  p.  473. 

8  Roosevelt,  "  Winning  of  the  West,"  and  citations  there  given ;  Cutler's 
"Life  of  Cutler." 


6  THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

and  up  the  Mohawk  about  Schenectady,  eastern  and  southern 
Pennsylvania,  Virginia  well  across  the  Shenandoah  Valley, 
and  the  Carolinas  and  eastern  Georgia.9  Beyond  this  region 
of  continuous  settlement  were  the  small  settled  areas  of  Ken 
tucky  and  Tennessee,  and  the  Ohio,  with  the  mountains  inter 
vening  between  them  and  the  Atlantic  area,  thus  giving  a  new 
and  important  character  to  the  frontier.  The  isolation  of  the 
region  increased  its  peculiarly  American  tendencies,  and  the 
need  of  transportation  facilities  to  connect  it  with  the  East 
called  out  important  schemes  of  internal  improvement,  which 
will  be  noted  farther  on.  The  "  West,"  as  a  self-conscious  sec 
tion,  began  to  evolve. 

From  decade  to  decade  distinct  advances  of  the  frontier 
occurred.  By  the  census  of  1820  10  the  settled  area  included 
Ohio,  southern  Indiana  and  Illinois,  southeastern  Missouri,  and 
about  one-half  of  Louisiana.  This  settled  area  had  surrounded 
Indian  areas,  and  the  management  of  these  tribes  became  an 
object  of  political  concern.  The  frontier  region  of  the  time  lay 
along  the  Great  Lakes,  where  Astor's  American  Fur  Company 
operated  in  the  Indian  trade,11  and  beyond  the  Mississippi, 

9 Scribner's  Statistical  Atlas,  xxxviii,  pi.  13;  McMaster,  "Hist,  of 
People  of  U.  S.("  i,  pp.  4,  60,  61 ;  Imlay  and  Filson,  "  Western  Territory 
of  America "  (London,  1793)  ;  Rochefoucault-Liancourt,  "  Travels 
Through  the  United  States  of  North  America "  (London,  1799)  ; 
Michaux's  "  Journal,"  in  Proceedings  American  Philosophical  Society, 
xxvi,  No.  129 ;  Forman,  "  Narrative  of  a  Journey  Down  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  in  1780-'90"  (Cincinnati,  1888)  ;  Bartram,  "Travels  Through 
North  Carolina,"  etc.  (London,  1792)  ;  Pope,  "Tour  Through  the  South 
ern  and  Western  Territories,"  etc.  (Richmond,  1792);  Weld,  "Travels 
Through  the  States  of  North  America"  (London,  1799)  ;  Baily,  "Journal 
of  a  Tour  in  the  Unsettled  States  of  North  America,  1796-'97  "  (London, 
1856)  ;  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History,  July,  1886;  Winsor,  "Narra 
tive  and  Critical  History  of  America,"  vii,  pp.  491,  492,  citations. 

10  Scribner's  Statistical  Atlas,  xxxix. 

11  Turner,  "  Character  and  Influence  of  the  Indian  Trade  in  Wiscon 
sin"  (Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies,  Series  ix),  pp.  61  ff. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER  7 

where  Indian  traders  extended  their  activity  even  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains;  Florida  also  furnished  frontier  conditions.  The 
Mississippi  River  region  was  the  scene  of  typical  frontier  settle 
ments.12 

The  rising  steam  navigation13  on  western  waters,  the  opening 
of  the  Erie  Canal,  and  the  westward  extension  of  cotton1*  cul 
ture  added  five  frontier  states  to  the  Union  in  this  period. 
Grund,  writing  in  1836,  declares :  "  It  appears  then  that  the 
universal  disposition  of  Americans  to  emigrate  to  the  western 
wilderness,  in  order  to  enlarge  their  dominion  over  inanimate 
nature,  is  the  actual  result  of  an  expansive  power  which  is 
inherent  in  them,  and  which  by  continually  agitating  all  classes 
of  society  is  constantly  throwing  a  large  portion  of  the  whole 
population  on  the  extreme  confines  of  the  State,  in  order  to  gain 
space  for  its  development.  Hardly  is  a  new  State  or  Territory 
formed  before  the  same  principle  manifests  itself  again  and 
gives  rise  to  a  further  emigration ;  and  so  is  it  destined  to  go  on 
until  a  physical  barrier  must  finally  obstruct  its  progress."  15 

"Monette,  "History  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  ii;  Flint,  "Travels 
and  Residence  in  Mississippi,"  Flint,  "  Geography  and  History  of  the 
Western  States,"  "Abridgment  of  Debates  of  Congress,"  vii,  pp.  397, 
398,  404 ;  Holmes,  "  Account  of  the  U.  S." ;  Kingdom,  "  America  and  the 
British  Colonies  "  (London,  1820)  ;  Grund,  "  Americans,"  ii,  chs.  i,  iii,  vi 
(although  writing  in  1836,  he  treats  of  conditions  that  grew  out  of 
western  advance  from  the  era  of  1820  to  that  time)  ;  Peck,  "  Guide  for 
Emigrants"  (Boston,  1831)  ;  Darby,  "Emigrants'  Guide  to  Western  and 
Southwestern  States  and  Territories  " ;  Dana,  "  Geographical  Sketches  in 
the  Western  Country";  Kinzie,  "Waubun";  Keating,  "Narrative  of 
Long's  Expedition";  Schoolcraft,  "Discovery  of  the  Sources  of  the 
Mississippi  River,"  "  Travels  in  the  Central  Portions  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley,"  and  "  Lead  Mines  of  the  Missouri " ;  Andreas,  "  History  of  Illi 
nois,"  i,  86-99;  Hurlbut,  "Chicago  Antiquities";  McKenney,  "Tour  to 
the  Lakes";  Thomas,  "Travels  Through  the  Western  Country,"  etc. 
(Auburn,  N.  Y.,  1819). 

"Darby,  "Emigrants'  Guide,"  pp.  272 ff;  Benton,  "Abridgment  of 
Debates,"  vii,  p.  397. 

14  De  Bow's  Review,  iv,  p.  254 ;  xvii,  p.  428. 

15  Grund,  "  Americans,"  ii,  p.  8. 


8          THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

In  the  middle  of  this  century  the  line  indicated  by  the  present 
eastern  boundary  of  Indian  Territory,  Nebraska,  and  Kansag 
marked  the  frontier  of  the  Indian  country.18  Minnesota  and 
Wisconsin  still  exhibited  frontier  conditions,17  but  the  dis- 
tinctive  frontier  of  the  period  is  found  in  California,  where 
the  gold  discoveries  had  sent  a  sudden  tide  of  adventurous 
miners,  and  in  Oregon,  and  the  settlements  in  Utah.18  As  the 
frontier  had  leaped  over  the  Alleghanies,  so  now  it  skipped 
the  Great  Plains  and  the  Rocky  Mountains;  and  in  the  same 
way  that  the  advance  of  the  frontiersmen  beyond  the  Alle 
ghanies  had  caused  the  rise  of  important  questions  of  trans 
portation  and  internal  improvement,  so  now  the  settlers  beyond 
the  Rocky  Mountains  needed  means  of  communication  with 
the  East,  and  in  the  furnishing  of  these  arose  the  settlement 
of  the  Great  Plains  and  the  development  of  still  another  kind 

18 Peck,  "New  Guide  to  the  West"  (Cincinnati,  1848),  ch.  iv;  Park- 
man,  "Oregon  Trail";  Hall,  "The  West"  (Cincinnati,  1848);  Pierce, 
"  Incidents  of  Western  Travel " ;  Murray,  "  Travels  in  North  America  " ; 
Lloyd,  "Steamboat  Directory"  (Cincinnati,  1856);  "Forty  Days  in  a 
Western  Hotel"  (Chicago),  in  Putnam's  Magazine,  December,  1894; 
Mackay,  "The  Western  World,"  ii,  ch.  ii,  iii;  Meeker,  "Life  in  the 
West";  Bogen,  "German  in  America"  (Boston,  1851);  Olmstead, 
"Texas  Journey";  Greeley,  "Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life";  Schouler, 
"History  of  the  United  States,"  v,  261-267;  Peyton,  "Over  the  Alle 
ghanies  and  Across  the  Prairies "  (London,  1870)  ;  Loughborough, 
"The  Pacific  Telegraph  and  Railway"  (St.  Louis,  1849);  Whitney, 
"Project  for  a  Railroad  to  the  Pacific"  (New  York,  1849);  Peyton, 
"  Suggestions  on  Railroad  Communication  with  the  Pacific,  and  the 
Trade  of  China  and  the  Indian  Islands " ;  Benton,  "  Highway  to  the 
Pacific"  (a  speech  delivered  in  the  U.  S.  Senate,  December  16,  1850). 

17  A  writer  in  The  Home  Missionary  (1850),  p.  239,  reporting  Wiscon 
sin  conditions,  exclaims:  "Think  of  this,  people  of  the  enlightened  East. 
What  an  example,  to  come  from  the  very  frontier  of  civilization!  "  But 
one  of  the  missionaries  writes:  "In  a  few  years  Wisconsin  will  no  longer 
be  considered  as  the  West,  or  as  an  outpost  of  civilization,  any  more  than 
Western  New  York,  or  the  Western  Reserve." 

M Bancroft  (H.  H.),  "History  of  California,"  "History  of  Oregon," 
and  "Popular  Tribunals";  Shinn,  "Mining  Camps." 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER  9 

of  frontier  life.  Railroads,  fostered  by  land  grants,  sent  an 
increasing  tide  of  immigrants  into  the  Far  Wesl.  The  United 
States  Army  foudit  a  series  of  Indian  wars  in  Minnesota, 
Dakota,  and  the  Indian  Territory. 

By  1880  the  settled  area  had  been  pushed  into  northern 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota,  along  Dakota  rivers,  and 
in  the  Black  Hills  region,  and  was  ascending  the  rivers  of  Kan 
sas  and  Nebraska.  The  development  of  mines  in  Colorado  had 
drawn  isolated  frontier  settlements  into  that  region,  and  Mon 
tana  and  Idaho  were  receiving  settlers.  The  frontier  was  found 
in  these  mining  camps  and  the  ranches  of  the  Great  Plains. 
The  superintendent  of  the  census  for  1890  reports,  as  previously 
stated,  that  the  settlements  of  the  West  lie  so  scattered  over 
the  region  that  there  can  no  longer  be  said  to  be  a  frontier  line. 

In  these  successive  frontiers  we  find  natural  boundary  lines 
which  have  served  to  mark  and  to  affect  the  characteristics  of 
the  frontiers,  namely:  the  "fall  line;"  the  Allegheny  Moun 
tains;  the  Mississippi;  the  Missouri  where  its  direction  ap 
proximates  north  and  south ;  the  line  of  the  arid  lands,  approx 
imately  the  ninety-ninth  meridian;  and  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
The  fall  line  marked  the  frontier  of  the  seventeenth  century; 
the  Alleghanies  that  of  the  eighteenth;  the  Mississippi  that  of 
the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth;  the  Missouri  that  of  the 
middle  of  this  century  (omitting  the  California  movement) ; 
and  the  belt  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  arid  tract,  the 
present  frontier.  Each  was  won  by  a  series  of  Indian  wars. 

At  the  Atlantic  frontier  one  can  study  the  germs  of  proces 
ses  repeated  at  each  successive  frontier.  We  have  the  complex 
European  life  sharply  precipitated  by  the  wilderness  into  the 
simplicity  of  primitive  conditions.  The  first  frontier  had  to 
meet  its  Indian  question,  its  question  of  the  disposition  of  the 
public  domain,  of  the  means  of  intercourse  with  older  settle 
ments,  of  the  extension  of  political  organization,  of  religious 


10         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

and  educational  activity.  And  the  settlement  of  these  and 
similar  questions  for  one  frontier  served  as  a  guide  for  the 
next.  The  American  student  needs  not  to  go  to  the  "  prim 
little  townships  of  Sleswick  "  for  illustrations  of  the  law  of 
continuity  and  development.  For  example,  he  may  study  the 
origin  of  our  land  policies  in  the  colonial  land  policy;  he  may 
see  how  the  system  grew  by  adapting  the  statutes  to  the  customs 
of  the  successive  frontiers.19  He  may  see  how  the  mining 
experience  in  the  lead  regions  of  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  and  Iowa 
was  applied  to  the  mining  laws  of  the  Sierras,20  and  how  our 
Indian  policy  has  been  a  series  of  experimentations  on  succes 
sive  frontiers.  Each  tier  of  new  States  has  found  in  the  older 
ones  material  for  its  constitutions.21  Each  frontier  has  made 
similar  contributions  to  American  character,  as  will  be  dis 
cussed  farther  on. 

But  with  all  these  similarities  there  are  essential  differences, 
due  to  the  place  element  and  the  time  element.  It  is  evident 
that  the  farming  frontier  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  presents 
different  conditions  from  the  mining  frontier  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  The  frontier  reached  by  the  Pacific  Railroad,  sur 
veyed  into  rectangles,  guarded  by  the  United  States  Army,  and 
recruited  by  the  daily  immigrant  ship,  moves  forward  at  a 
swifter  pace  and  in  a  different  way  than  the  frontier  reached 
by  the  birch  canoe  or  the  pack  horse.  The  geologist  traces 
patiently  the  shores  of  ancient  seas,  maps  their  areas,  and  com 
pares  the  older  and  the  newer.  It  would  be  a  work  worth  the 
historian's  labors  to  mark  these  various  frontiers  and  in  detail 
compare  one  with  another.  Not  only  would  there  result  a 

19  See  the  suggestive  paper  by  Prof.  Jesse  Macy,  "  The  Institutional 
Beginnings  of  a  Western  State." 

20  Shinn,  "  Mining  Camps." 

21  Compare  Thorpe,  in  Annals  American  Academy  of  Political  and 
Social  Science,   September,   1891;    Bryce,  "American   Commonwealth" 
(1888),  ii,  p.  689. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER          11 

more  adequate  conception  of  American  development  and  char- 
asteristics,  but  invaluable  additions  would  be  made  to  the  his 
tory  of  society. 

Loria,22  the  Italian  economist,  has  urged  the  study  of  colo 
nial  life  as  an  aid  in  understanding  the  stages  of  European 
development,  affirming  that  colonial  settlement  is  for  economic 
science  what  the  mountain  is  for  geology,  bringing  to  light 
primitive  stratifications.  "  America,"  he  says,  "  has  the  key  to 
the  historical  enigma  which  Europe  has  sought  for  centuries  in 
vain,  and  the  land  which  has  no  history  reveals  luminously  the 
course  of  universal  history."  There  is  much  truth  in  this. 
The  United  States  lies  like  a  huge  page  in  the  history  of 
society.  Line  by  line  as  we  read  this  continental  page  from 
West  to  East  we  find  the  record  of  social  evolution.  It  begins 
with  the  Indian  and  the  hunter ;  it  goes  on  to  tell  of  the  disin 
tegration  of  savagery  by  the  entrance  of  the  trader,  the  path 
finder  of  civilization;  we  read  the  annals  of  the  pastoral  stage 
in  ranch  life;  the  exploitation  of  the  soil  by  the  raising  of 
unrotated  crops  of  corn  and  wheat  in  sparsely  settled  farming 
communities;  the  intensive  culture  of  the  denser  farm  settle 
ment;  and  finally  the  manufacturing  organization  with  city  and 
factory  system.23  This  page  is  familiar  to  the  student  of  cen 
sus  statistics,  but  how  little  of  it  has  been  used  by  our  histo 
rians.  Particularly  in  eastern  States  this  page  is  a  palimpsest. 
What  is  now  a  manufacturing  State  was  in  an  earlier  decade 
an  area  of  intensive  farming.  Earlier  yet  it  had  been  a  wheat 
area,  and  still  earlier  the  "  range "  had  attracted  the  cattle- 
herder.  Thus  Wisconsin,  now  developing  manufacture,  is  a 

22  Loria,  Analisi  della  Proprieta  Capitalista,  ii,  p.  15. 

23  Compare  "  Observations  on  the  North  American  Land  Company," 
London,  1796,  pp.  xv,  144;  Logan,  "History  of  Upper  South  Carolina,"  i, 
pp.  149-151 ;  Turner,  "  Character  and  Influence  of  Indian  Trade  in  Wis 
consin,"  p.  18;  Peck,  "New  Guide  for  Emigrants"  (Boston,  1837),  ch. 
iv;  "  Compendium  Eleventh  Census,"  i,  p.  xl. 


12         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

State  with  varied  agricultural  interests.  But  earlier  it  was 
given  over  to  almost  exclusive  grain-raising,  like  North  Dakota 
at  the  present  time. 

Each  of  these  areas  has  had  an  influence  in  our  economic 
and  political  history;  the  evolution  of  each  into  a  higher 
stage  has  worked  political  transformations.  But  what  consti 
tutional  historian  has  made  any  adequate  attempt  to  interpret 
political  facts  by  the  light  of  these  social  areas  and  changes?  24 

The  Atlantic  frontier  was  compounded  of  fisherman,  fur- 
trader,  miner,  cattle-raiser,  and  farmer.  Excepting  the  fisher 
man,  each  type  of  industry  was  on  the  march  toward  the  West, 
impelled  by  an  irresistible  attraction.  Each  passed  in  succes 
sive  waves  across  the  continent.  Stand  at  Cumberland  Gap 
and  watch  the  procession  of  civilization,  marching  single  file  — 
the  buffalo  following  the  trail  to  the  salt  springs,  the  Indian, 
the  fur-trader  and  hunter,  the  cattle-raiser,  the  pioneer  farmer 
—  and  the  frontier  has  passed  by.  Stand  at  South  Pass  in  the 
Rockies  a  century  later  and  see  the  same  procession  with 
wider  intervals  between.  The  unequal  rate  of  advance  com 
pels  us  to  distinguish  the  frontier  into  the  trader's  frontier,  the 
rancher's  frontier,  or  the  miner's  frontier,  and  the  farmer's 
frontier.  When  the  mines  and  the  cow  pens  were  still  near 
the  fall  line  the  traders'  pack  trains  were  tinkling  across  the 
Alleghanies,  and  the  French  on  the  Great  Lakes  were  fortify 
ing  their  posts,  alarmed  by  the  British  trader's  birch  canoe. 
When  the  trappers  scaled  the  Rockies,  the  farmer  was  still 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri. 

Why  was  it  that  the  Indian  trader  passed  so  rapidly  across 
the  continent?  What  effects  followed  from  the  trader's  fron 
tier?  The  trade  was  coeval  with  American  discovery.  The 
Norsemen,  Vespuccius,  Verrazani,  Hudson,  John  Smith,  all 

24  See  post,  for  illustrations  of  the  political  accompaniments  of 
changed  industrial  conditions. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER          13 

trafficked  for  furs.  The  Plymouth  pilgrims  settled  in  Indian 
cornfields,  and  their  first  return  cargo  was  of  beaver  and  lum 
ber.  The  records  of  the  various  New  England  colonies  show 
how  steadily  exploration  was  carried  into  the  wilderness  by 
this  trade.  What  is  true  for  New  England  is,  as  would  be 
expected,  even  plainer  for  the  rest  of  the  colonies.  All  along 
the  coast  from  Maine  to  Georgia  the  Indian  trade  opened  up 
the  river  courses.  Steadily  the  trader  passed  westward,  utiliz 
ing  the  older  lines  of  French  trade.  The  Ohio,  the  Great 
Lakes,  the  Mississippi,  the  Missouri,  and  the  Platte,  the  lines 
of  western  advance,  were  ascended  by  traders.  They  found 
the  passes  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  guided  Lewis  and 
Clark,25  Fremont,  and  Bidwell.  The  explanation  of  the  ra 
pidity  of  this  advance  is  connected  with  the  effects  of  the 
trader  on  the  Indian.  The  trading  post  left  the  unarmed 
tribes  at  the  mercy  of  those  that  had  purchased  fire-arms  —  a 
truth  which  the  Iroquois  Indians  wrote  in  blood,  and  so  the 
remote  and  unvisited  tribes  gave  eager  welcome  to  the  trader. 
"  The  savages,"  wrote  La  Salle,  "  take  better  care  of  us  French 
than  of  their  own  children;  from  us  only  can  they  get  guns 
and  goods."  This  accounts  for  the  trader's  power  and  the 
rapidity  of  his  advance.  Thus  the  disintegrating  forces  of 
civilization  entered  the  wilderness.  Every  river  valley  and 
Indian  trail  became  a  fissure  in  Indian  society,  and  so  that 
society  became  honeycombed.  Long  before  the  pioneer  farmer 
appeared  on  the  scene,  primitive  Indian  life  had  passed  away. 
The  farmers  met  Indians  armed  with  guns.  The  trading  fron 
tier,  while  steadily  undermining  Indian  power  by  making  the 
tribes  ultimately  dependent  on  the  whites,  yet,  through  its 
sale  of  guns,  gave  to  the  Indian  increased  power  of  resistance 
to  the  farming  frontier.  French  colonization  was  dominated 

25  But  Lewis  and  Clark  were  the  first  to  explore  the  route  from  the 
Missouri  to  the  Columbia. 


14         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

by  its  trading  frontier;  English  colonization  by  its  farming 
frontier.  There  was  an  antagonism  between  the  two  frontiers 
as  between  the  two  nations.  Said  Duquesne  to  the  Iroquois, 
"  Are  you  ignorant  of  the  difference  between  the  king  of  Eng 
land  and  the  king  of  France?  Go  see  the  forts  that  our  king 
has  established  and  you  will  see  that  you  can  still  hunt  under 
their  very  walls.  They  have  been  placed  for  your  advantage 
in  places  which  you  frequent.  The  English,  on  the  contrary, 
are  no  sooner  in  possession  of  a  place  than  the  game  is  driven 
away.  The  forest  falls  before  them  as  they  advance,  and  the 
soil  is  laid  bare  so'that  you  can  scarce  find  the  wherewithal  to 
erect  a  shelter  for  the  night." 

And  yet,  in  spite  of  this  opposition  of  the  interests  of  the 
trader  and  the  farmer,  the  Indian  trade  pioneered  the  way 
for  civilization.  The  buffalo  trail  became  the  Indian  trail, 
and  this  became  the  trader's  "trace;"  the  trails  widened  into 
roads,  and  the  roads  into  turnpikes,  and  these  in  turn  were 
transformed  into  railroads.  The  same  origin  can  be  shown 
for  the  railroads  of  the  South,  the  Far  West,  and  the  Dominion 
of  Canada.26  The  trading  posts  reached  by  these  trails  were 
on  the  sites  of  Indian  villages  which  had  been  placed  in  posi 
tions  suggested  by  nature;  and  these  trading  posts,  situated  so 
as  to  command  the  water  systems  of  the  country,  have  grown 
into  such  cities  as  Albany,  Pittsburgh,  Detroit,  Chicago,  St. 
Louis,  Council  Bluffs,  and  Kansas  City.  Thus  civilization  in 
America  has  followed  the  arteries  made  by  geology,  pouring 
an  ever  richer  tide  through  them,  until  at  last  the  slender  paths 
of  aboriginal  intercourse  have  been  broadened  and  interwoven 
into  the  complex  mazes  of  modern  commercial  lines;  the  wil- 

26  "Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,"  viii,  p.  10;  Sparks' 
"  Washington  Works,"  ix,  pp.  303,  327 ;  Logan,  "  History  of  Upper  South 
Carolina,"  i ;  McDonald,  "  Life  of  Kenton,"  p.  72 ;  Cong.  Record,  xxiii, 
p.  57. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER          15 

derness  has  been  interpenetrated  by  lines  of  civilization  grow 
ing  ever  more  numerous.  It  is  like  the  steady  growth  of  a 
complex  nervous  system  for  the  originally  simple,  inert  con 
tinent.  If  one  would  understand  why  we  are  to-day  one 
nation,  rather  than  a  collection  of  isolated  states,  he  must 
study  this  economic  and  social  consolidation  of  the  country. 
In  this  progress  from  savage  conditions  lie  topics  for  the 
evolutionist.27 

The  effect  of  the  Indian  frontier  as  a  consolidating  agent  in 
our  history  is  important.  From  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century  various  intercolonial  congresses  have  been  called  to 
treat  with  Indians  and  establish  common  measures  of  defense. 
Particularism  was  strongest  in  colonies  with  no  Indian  frontier. 
This  frontier  stretched  along  the  western  border  like  a  cord  of 
union.  The  Indian  was  a  common  danger,  demanding  united 
action.  Most  celebrated  of  these  conferences  was  the  Albany 
congress  of  1754,  called  to  treat  with  the  Six  Nations,  and  to 
consider  plans  of  union.  Even  a  cursory  reading  of  the  plan 
proposed  by  the  congress  reveals  the  importance  of  the  frontier. 
The  powers  of  the  general  council  and  the  officers  were,  chiefly, 
the  determination. of  peace  and  war  with  the  Indians,  the  regu 
lation  of  Indian  trade,  the  purchase  of  Indian  lands,  and  the 
creation  and  government  of  new  settlements  as  a  security 
against  the  Indians.  It  is  evident  that  the  unifying  tenden 
cies  of  the  Revolutionary  period  were  facilitated  by  the  pre 
vious  cooperation  in  the  regulation  of  the  frontier.  In  this  con 
nection  may  be  mentioned  the  importance  of  the  frontier,  from 
that  day  to  this,  as  a  military  training  school,  keeping  alive 
the  power  of  resistance  to  aggression,  and  developing  the  stal 
wart  and  rugged  qualities  of  the  frontiersman. 

27  On  the  effect  of  the  fur  trade  in  opening  the  routes  of  migration, 
see  the  author's  "  Character  and  Influence  of  the  Indian  Trade  in  Wis 
consin." 


16         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

It  would  not  be  possible  in  the  limits  of  this  paper  to  trace 
the  other  frontiers  across  the  continent.  Travelers  of  the 
eighteenth  century  found  the  "  cowpens "  among  the  cane- 
brakes  and  peavine  pastures  of  the  South,  and  the  "  cow 
drivers "  took  their  droves  to  Charleston,  Philadelphia,  and 
New  York.28  Travelers  at  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812  met 
droves  of  more  than  a  thousand  cattle  and  swine  from  the 
interior  of  Ohio  going  to  Pennsylvania  to  fatten  for  the  Phila 
delphia  market.29  The  ranges  of  the  Great  Plains,  with  ranch 
and  cowboy  and  nomadic  life,  are  things  of  yesterday  and  of 
to-day.  The  experience  of  the  Carolina  cowpens  guided  the 
ranchers  of  Texas.  One  element  favoring  the  rapid  extension 
of  the  rancher's  frontier  is  the  fact  that  in  a  remote  country 
lacking  transportation  facilities  the  product  must  be  in  small 
bulk,  or  must  be  able  to  transport  itself,  and  the  cattle  raiser 
could  easily  drive  his  product  to  market.  The  effect  of  these 
great  ranches  on  the  subsequent  agrarian  history  of  the  local 
ities  in  which  they  existed  should  be  studied. 

The  maps  of  the  census  reports  show  an  uneven  advance  of 
the  farmer's  frontier,  with  tongues  of  settlement  pushed  for 
ward  and  with  indentations  of  wilderness.  In  part  this  is  due 
to  Indian  resistance,  in  part  to  the  location  of  river  valleys 
and  passes,  in  part  to  the  unequal  force  of  the  centers  of  fron 
tier  attraction.  Among  the  important  centers  of  attraction 
may  be  mentioned  the  following:  fertile  and  favorably  situated 
soils,  salt  springs,  mines,  and  army  posts. 

The  frontier  army  post,  serving  to  protect  the  settlers  from 
the  Indians,  has  also  acted  as  a  wedge  to  open  the  Indian 
country,  and  has  been  a  nucleus  for  settlement.30  In  this  con- 

28 Lodge,  "English  Colonies,"  p.  152  and  citations;  Logan,  "Hist,  of 
Upper  South  Carolina,"  i.  p.  151. 
20  Flint,  "Recollections,"  p.  9. 
80 See  Monette,  "Mississippi  Valley,"  i,  p.  344. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER         17 

nection  mention  should  also  be  made  of  the  government  mili 
tary  and  exploring  expeditions  in  determining  the  lines  of  set 
tlement.  But  all  the  more  important  expeditions  were  greatly 
indebted  to  the  earliest  pathmakers,  the  Indian  guides,  the 
traders  and  trappers,  and  the  French  voyageurs,  who  were 
inevitable  parts  of  governmental  expeditions  from  the  days  of 
Lewis  and  Clark.31  Each  expedition  was  an  epitome  of  the 
previous  factors  in  western  advance. 

,  In  an  interesting  monograph,  Victor  Hehn  32  has  traced  the 
effect  of  salt  upon  early  European  development,  and  has 
pointed  out  how  it  affected  the  lines  of  settlement  and  the  form 
of  administration.  A  similar  study  might  be  made  for  the 
salt  springs  of  the  United  States.  The  early  settlers  were  tied 
to  the  coast  by  the  need  of  salt,  without  which  they  could  not 
preserve  their  meats  or  live  in  comfort.  Writing  in  1752, 
Bishop  Spangenburg  says  of  a  colony  for  which  he  was  seek 
ing  lands  in  North  Carolina,  "  They  will  require  salt  &  other 
necessaries  which  they  can  neither  manufacture  nor  raise. 
Either  they  must  go  to  Charleston,  which  is  300  miles  distant 
...  Or  else  they  must  go  to  Boling's  Point  in  Va  on  a 
branch  of  the  James  &  is  also  300  miles  from  here  .  .  . 
Or  else  they  must  go  down  the  Roanoke  —  I  know  not  how 
many  miles  —  where  salt  is  brought  up  from  the  Cape  Fear."  S3 
This  may  serve  as  a  typical  illustration.  An  annual  pilgrim 
age  to  the  coast  for  salt  thus  became  essential.  Taking  flocks 
or  furs  and  ginseng  root,  the  early  settlers  sent  their  pack  trains 
after  seeding  time  each  year  to  the  coast.34  This  proved  to  be 
an  important  educational  influence,  since  it  was  almost  the 

31Coues',  "Lewis  and  Clark's  Expedition,"  i,  pp.  2,  253-259;  Benton, 
in  Cong.  Record,  xxiii,  p.  57. 

32  Hehn,  Das  Salz  (Berlin,  1873). 

33  Col.  Records  of  N.  C.,  v,  p.  3. 

84  Findley,  "  History  of  the  Insurrection  in  the  Four  Western  Counties 
of  Pennsylvania  in  the  Year  1794"  (Philadelphia,  1796),  p.  35. 


18         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

only  way  in  which  the  pioneer  learned  what  was  going  on  in 
the  East.  But  when  discovery  was  made  of  the  salt  springs 
of  the  Kanawha,  and  the  Holston,  and  Kentucky,  and  central 
New  York,  the  West  began  to  be  freed  from  dependence  on 
the  coast.  It  was  in  part  the  effect  of  finding  these  salt  springs 
that  enabled  settlement  to  cross  the  mountains. 

From  the  time  the  mountains  rose  between  the  pioneer  and 
the  seaboard,  a  new  order  of  Americanism  arose.  The  West 
and  the  East  began  to  get  out  of  touch  of  each  other.  The 
settlements  from  the  sea  to  the  mountains  kept  connection 
with  the  rear  and  had  a  certain  solidarity.  But  the  over-moun 
tain  men  grew  more  and  more  independent.  The  East  took  a 
narrow  view  of  American  advance,  and  nearly  lost  these  men. 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee  history  bears  abundant  witness  to  the 
truth  of  this  statement.  The  East  began  to  try  to  hedge  and 
limit  westward  expansion.  Though  Webster  could  declare 
that  there  were  no  Alleghanies  in  his  politics,  yet  in  politics  in 
general  they  were  a  very  solid  factor. 

The  exploitation  of  the  beasts  took  hunter  and  trader  to  the 
west,  the  exploitation  of  the  grasses  took  the  rancher  west, 
and  the  exploitation  of  the  virgin  soil  of  the  river  valleys  and 
prairies  attracted  the  farmer.  Good  soils  have  been  the  most 
continuous  attraction  to  the  farmer's  frontier.  The  land  hun 
ger  of  the  Virginians  drew  them  down  the  rivers  into  Carolina, 
in  early  colonial  days;  the  search  for  soils  took  the  Massa 
chusetts  men  to  Pennsylvania  and  to  New  York.  As  the  east 
ern  lands  were  taken  up  migration  flowed  across  them  to  the 
west.  Daniel  Boone,  the  great  backwoodsman,  who  combined 
the  occupations  of  hunter,  trader,  cattle-raiser,  farmer,  and 
surveyor  —  learning,  probably  from  the  traders,  of  the  fer 
tility  of  the  lands  of  the  upper  Yadkin,  where  the  traders  were 
wont  to  rest  as  they  took  their  way  to  the  Indians,  left  his 
Pennsylvania  home  with  his  father,  and  passed  down  the 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER          19 

Great  Valley  road  to  that  stream.  Learning  from  a  trader 
of  the  game  and  rich  pastures  of  Kentucky,  he  pioneered  the 
way  for  the  farmers  to  that  region.  Thence  he  passed  to  the 
frontier  of  Missouri,  where  his  settlement  was  long  a  landmark 
on  the  frontier.  Here  again  he  helped  to  open  the  way  for 
civilization,  finding  salt  licks,  and  trails,  and  land.  His  son 
was  among  the  earliest  trappers  in  the  passes  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  his  party  are  said  to  have  been  the  first  to  camp 
on  the  present  site  of  Denver.  His  grandson,  Col.  A.  J.  Boone, 
of  Colorado,  was  a  power  among  the  Indians  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  was  appointed  an  agent  by  the  government. 
Kit  Carson's  mother  was  a  Boone.35  Thus  this  family  epi 
tomizes  the  backwoodsman's  advance  across  the  continent. 

The  farmer's  advance  came  in  a  distinct  series  of  waves.  In 
Peck's  New  Guide  to  the  West,  published  in  Boston  in  1837, 
occurs  this  suggestive  passage: 

Generally,  in  all  the  western  settlements,  three 
classes,  like  the  waves  of  the  ocean,  have  rolled 
one  after  the  other.  First  comes  the  pioneer,  who 
depends  for  the  subsistence  of  his  family  chiefly 
upon  the  natural  growth  of  vegetation,  called  the 
"  range,"  and  the  proceeds  of  hunting.  His  imple 
ments  of  agriculture  are  rude,  chiefly  of  his  own 
make,  and  his  efforts  directed  mainly  to  a  crop  of 
corn  and  a  "  truck  patch."  The  last  is  a  rude 
garden  for  growing  cabbage,  beans,  corn  for  roast 
ing  ears,  cucumbers,  and  potatoes.  A  log  cabin, 
and,  occasionally,  a  stable  and  corn-crib,  and  a 
field  of  a  dozen  acres,  the  timber  girdled  or  "  dead  • 
ened,"  and  fenced,  are  enough  for  his  occupancy. 
It  is  quite  immaterial  whether  he  ever  becomes  the 

85 Rale,  "Daniel  Boone"  (pamphlet). 


20         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

owner  of  the  soil.  He  is  the  occupant  for  the  time 
being,  pays  no  rent,  and  feels  as  independent  as  the 
"  lord  of  the  manor."  With  a  horse,  cow,  and  one 
or  two  breeders  of  swine,  he  strikes  into  the  woods 
with  his  family,  and  becomes  the  founder  of  a  new 
county,  or  perhaps  state.  He  builds  his  cabin, 
gathers  around  him  a  few  other  families  of  similar 
tastes  and  habits,  and  occupies  till  the  range  is 
somewhat  subdued,  and  hunting  a  little  precarious, 
or,  which  is  more  frequently  the  case,  till  the  neigh 
bors  crowd  around,  roads,  bridges,  and  fields  annoy 
him,  and  he  lacks  elbow  room.  The  preemption 
law  enables  him  to  dispose  of  his  cabin  and  corn 
field  to  the  next  class  of  emigrants;  and,  to  employ 
his  own  figures,  he  "  breaks  for  the  high  timber," 
"  clears  out  for  the  New  Purchase,"  or  migrates  to 
Arkansas  or  Texas,  to  work  the  same  process  over. 

The  next  class  of  emigrants  purchase  the  lands, 
add  field  to  field,  clear  out  the  roads,  throw  rough 
bridges  over  the  streams,  put  up  hewn  log  houses 
with  glass  windows  and  brick  or  stone  chimneys, 
occasionally  plant  orchards,  build  mills,  school- 
houses,  court-houses,  etc.,  and  exhibit  the  picture 
and  forms  of  plain,  frugal,  civilized  life. 

Another  wave  rolls  on.  The  men  of  capital  and 
enterprise  come.  The  settler  is  ready  to  sell  out 
and  take  the  advantage  of  the  rise  in  property, 
push  farther  into  the  interior  and  become,  him 
self,  a  man  of  capital  and  enterprise  in  turn.  The 
small  village  rises  to  a  spacious  town  or  city;  sub 
stantial  edifices  of  brick,  extensive  fields,  orchards, 
gardens,  colleges,  and  churches  are  seen.  Broad 
cloths,  silks,  leghorns,  crapes,  and  all  the  refine- 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER          21 

ments,  luxuries,  elegancies,  frivolities,  and  fash 
ions  are  in  vogue.  Thus  wave  after  wave  is  roll 
ing  westward;  the  real  Eldorado  is  still  farther 
on. 

A  portion  of  the  two  first  classes  remain  station 
ary  amidst  the  general  movement,  improve  their 
habits  and  condition,  and  rise  in  the  scale  of 
society. 

The  writer  has  traveled  much  amongst  the  first 
class,  the  real  pioneers.  He  has  lived  many  years 
in  connection  with  the  second  grade;  and  now  the 
third  wave  is  sweeping  over  large  districts  of  Indi 
ana,  Illinois,  and  Missouri.  Migration  has  become 
almost  a  habit  in  the  West.  Hundreds  of  men  can 
be  found,  not  over  50  years  of  age,  who  have 
settled  for  the  fourth,  fifth,  or  sixth  time  on  a  new 
spot.  To  sell  out  and  remove  only  a  few  hundred 
miles  makes  up  a  portion  of  the  variety  of  back 
woods  life  and  manners.38 

Omitting  those  of  the  pioneer  farmers  who  move  from  the 
love  of  adventure,  the  advance  of  the  more  steady  farmer  is 
easy  to  understand.  Obviously  the  immigrant  was  attracted 
by  the  cheap  lands  of  the  frontier,  and  even  the  native  farmer 
felt  their  influence  strongly.  Year  by  year  the  farmers  who 
lived  on  soil  whose  returns  were  diminished  by  unrelated 
crops  were  offered  the  virgin  soil  of  the  frontier  at  nominal 
prices.  Their  growing  families  demanded  more  lands,  and 
these  were  dear.  The  competition  of  the  unexhausted,  cheap, 

36  Compare  Baily,  "  Tour  in  the  Unsettled  Parts  of  North  America " 
(London,  1856),  pp.  217-219,  where  a  similar  analysis  is  made  for  1796. 
See  also  Collot,  "Journey  in  North  America"  (Paris,  1826),  p.  109; 
"  Observations  on  the  North  American  Land  Company  "  (London,  1796) , 
pp.  xv,  144 ;  Logan,  "  History  of  Upper  South  Carolina." 


22         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

and  easily  tilled  prairie  lands  compelled  the  farmer  either  to 
go  west  and  continue  the  exhaustion  of  the  soil  on  a  new 
frontier,  or  to  adopt  intensive  culture.  Thus  the  census  of 
1890  shows,  in  the  Northwest,  many  counties  in  which  there 
is  an  absolute  or  a  relative  decrease  of  population.  These 
States  have  been  sending  farmers  to  advance  the  frontier  on 
the  plains,  and  have  themselves  begun  to  turn  to  intensive 
farming  and  to  manufacture.  A  decade  before  this,  Ohio  had 
shown  the  same  transition  stage.  Thus  the  demand  for  land 
and  the  love  of  wilderness  freedom  drew  the  frontier  ever 
onward. 

Having  now  roughly  outlined  the  various  kinds  of  frontiers, 
and  their  modes  of  advance,  chiefly  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  frontier  itself,  we  may  next  inquire  what  were  the  influences 
on  the  East  and  on  the  Old  World.  A  rapid  enumeration  of 
some  of  the  more  noteworthy  effects  is  all  that  I  have  time  for. 

First,  we  note  that  the  frontier  promoted  the  formation  of  a 
composite  nationality  for  the  American  people.  The  coast  was 
preponderantly  English,  but  the  later  tides  of  continental  immi 
gration  flowed  across  to  the  free  lands.  This  was  the  case 
from  the  early  colonial  days.  The  Scotch-Irish  and  the  Pala 
tine  Germans,  or  "  Pennsylvania  Dutch,"  furnished  the  dom 
inant  element  in  the  stock  of  the  colonial  frontier.  With  these 
peoples  were  also  the  freed  indented  servants,  or  redemptioners, 
who  at  the  expiration  of  their  time  of  service  passed  to  the 
frontier.  Governor  Spotswood  of  Virginia  writes  in  1717, 
"  The  inhabitants  of  our  frontiers  are  composed  generally  of 
such  as  have  been  transported  hither  as  servants,  and,  being 
out  of  their  time,  settle  themselves  where  land  is  to  be  taken 
up  and  that  will  produce  the  necessarys  of  life  with  little 
labour."  S7  Very  generally  these  redemptioners  were  of  non- 

87  "  Spotswood  Papers,"  in  Collections  of  Virginia  Historical  Society, 
i,  ii. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER          23 

English  stock.  In  the  crucible  of  the  frontier  the  immigrants 
were  Americanized,  liberated,  and  fused  into  a  mixed  race, 
English  in  neither  nationality  nor  characteristics.  The  process 
has  gone  on  from  the  early  days  to  our  own.  Burke  and  other 
writers  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  believed  that 
Pennsylvania s8  was  "  threatened  with  the  danger  of  being 
wholly  foreign  in  language,  manners,  and  perhaps  even  inclina 
tions."  The  German  and  Scotch-Irish  elements  in  the  frontier 
of  the  South  were  only  less  great.  In  the  middle  of  the  present 
century  the  German  element  in  Wisconsin  was  already  so 
considerable  that  leading  publicists  looked  to  the  creation  of  a 
German  state  out  of  the  commonwealth  by  concentrating  their 
colonization.39  Such  examples  teach  us  to  beware  of  misinter 
preting  the  fact  that  there  is  a  common  English  speech  in 
America  into  a  belief  that  the  stock  is  also  English. 

In  another  way  the  advance  of  the  frontier  decreased  our 
dependence  on  England.  The  coast,  particularly  of  the  South, 
lacked  diversified  industries,  and  was  dependent  on  England 
for  the  bulk  of  its  supplies.  In  the  South  there  was  even  a 
dependence  on  the  Northern  colonies  for  articles  of  food. 
Governor  Glenn,  of  South  Carolina,  writes  in  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century :  "  Our  trade  with  New  York  and  Philadel 
phia  was  of  this  sort,  draining  us  of  all  the  little  money  and 
bills  we  could  gather  from  other  places  for  their  bread,  flour, 
beer,  hams,  bacon,  and  other  things  of  their  produce,  all  which, 
except  beer,  our  new  townships  begin  to  supply  us  with,  which 
are  settled  with  very  industrious  and  thriving  Germans.  This 
no  doubt  diminishes  the  number  of  shipping  and  the  appear 
ance  of  our  trade,  but  it  is  far  from  being  a  detriment  to  us."  *° 

ss  [Burke],  "European  Settlements"  (1765  ed.),  ii,  p.  200. 

39  Everest,  in  "  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,"  xii,  pp.  7  ff. 

40  We»ton,  "  Documents  connected  with  History  of  South  Carolina,"  p. 
61. 


24         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Before  long  the  frontier  created  a  demand  for  merchants.  As 
it  retreated  from  the  coast  it  became  less  and  less  possible  for 
England  to  bring  her  supplies  directly  to  the  consumer's 
wharfs,  and  carry  away  staple  crops,  and  staple  crops  began 
to  give  way  to  diversified  agriculture  for  a  time.  The  effect 
of  this  phase  of  the  frontier  action  upon  the  northern  section 
is  perceived  when  we  realize  how  the  advance  of  the  frontier 
aroused  seaboard  cities  like  Boston,  New  York,  and  Baltimore, 
to  engage  in  rivalry  for  what  Washington  called  "  the  exten 
sive  and  valuable  trade  of  a  rising  empire." 

The  legislation  which  most  developed  the  powers  of  the 
national  government,  and  played  the  largest  part  in  its  activ 
ity,  was  conditioned  on  the  frontier.  Writers  have  discussed 
the  subjects  of  tariff,  land,  and  internal  improvement,  as  sub 
sidiary  to  the  slavery  question.  But  when  American  history 
comes  to  be  rightly  viewed  it  will  be  seen  that  the  slavery 
question  is  an  incident.  In  the  period  from  the  end  of  the  first 
half  of  the  present  century  to  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  slav 
ery  rose  to  primary,  but  far  from  exclusive,  importance.  But 
this  does  not  justify  Dr.  von  Hoist  (to  take  an  example)  in 
treating  our  constitutional  history  in  its  formative  period  down 
to  1828  in  a  single  volume,  giving  six  volumes  chiefly  to  the 
history  of  slavery  from  1828  to  1861,  under  the  title  "  Constitu 
tional  History  of  the  United  States."  The  growth  of  national 
ism  and  the  evolution  of  American  political  institutions  were 
dependent  on  the  advance  of  the  frontier.  Even  so  recent  a 
writer  as  Rhodes,  in  his  "  History  of  the  United  States  since  the 
Compromise  of  1850,"  has  treated  the  legislation  called  out  by 
the  western  advance  as  incidental  to  the  slavery  struggle. 

This  is  a  wrong  perspective.  The  pioneer  needed  the  goods 
of  the  coast,  and  so  the  grand  series  of  internal  improvement 
and  railroad  legislation  began,  with  potent  nationalizing  effects. 
«!)ver  internal  improvements  occurred  great  debates,  in  which 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER          25 

grave  constitutional  questions  were  discussed.  Sectional 
groupings  appear  in  the  votes,  profoundly  significant  for  the 
historian.  Loose  construction  increased  as  the  nation  marched 
westward41  But  the  West  was  not  content  with  bringing  the 
farm  to  the  factory.  Under  the  lead  of  Clay  — "  Harry  of  the 
West " —  protective  tariffs  were  passed,  with  the  cry  of  bring 
ing  the  factory  to  the  farm.  The  disposition  of  the  public 
lands  was  a  third  important  subject  of  national  legislation 
influenced  by  the  frontier. 

The  public  domain  has  been  a  force  of  profound  importance 
in  the  nationalization  and  development  of  the  government. 
The  effects  of  the  struggle  of  the  landed  and  the  landless 
States,  and  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  need  no  discussion.42 
Administratively  the  frontier  called  out  some  of  the  highest  and 
most  vitalizing  activities  of  the  general  government.  The  pur 
chase  of  Louisiana  was  perhaps  the  constitutional  turning  point 
in  the  history  of  the  Republic,  inasmuch  as  it  afforded  both  a 
new  area  for  national  legislation  and  the  occasion  of  the  down 
fall  of  the  policy  of  strict  construction.  But  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana  was  called  out  by  frontier  needs  and  demands.  As 
frontier  States  accrued  to  the  Union  the  national  power  grew. 
In  a  speech  on  the  dedication  of  the  Calhoun  monument  Mr. 
Lamar  explained:  "  In  1789  the  States  were  the  creators  of  the 
Federal  Government;  in  1861  the  Federal  Government  was 
the  creator  of  a  large  majority  of  the  States." 

When  we  consider  the  public  domain  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  sale  and  disposal  of  the  public  lands  we  are  again 
brought  face  to  face  with  the  frontier.  The  policy  of  the 

41  See,  for  example,  the  speech  of  Clay,  in  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  January  30,  1824. 

42  See  the  admirable  monograph  by  Prof.  H.  B.  Adams,  "  Maryland's 
Influence  on  the  Land  Cessions  " ;  and  also  President  Welling,  in  Papers 
American  Historical  Association,  iii,  p.  411. 


26         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

United  States  in  dealing  with  its  lands  is  in  sharp  contrast 
with  the  European  system  of  scientific  administration.  Efforts 
to  make  this  domain  a  source  of  revenue,  and  to  withhold  it 
from  emigrants  in  order  that  settlement  might  be  compact, 
were  in  vain.  The  jealousy  and  the  fears  of  the  East  were 
powerless  in  the  face  of  the  demands  of  the  frontiersmen. 
John  Quincy  Adams  was  obliged  to  confess:  "My  own  system 
of  administration,  which  was  to  make  the  national  domain  the 
inexhaustible  fund  for  progressive  and  unceasing  internal 
improvement,  has  failed."  The  reason  is  obvious;  a  system 
of  administration  was  not  what  the  West  demanded ;  it  wanted 
land.  Adams  states  the  situation  as  follows:  "The  slavehold 
ers  of  the  South  have  bought  the  cooperation  of  the  western 
country  by  the  bribe  of  the  western  lands,  abandoning  to  the 
new  Western  States  their  own  proportion  of  the  public  prop 
erty  and  aiding  them  in  the  design  of  grasping  all  the  lands 
into  their  own  hands.  Thomas  H.  Benton  was  the  author  of 
this  system,  which  he  brought  forward  as  a  substitute  for  the 
American  system  of  Mr.  Clay,  and  to  supplant  him  as  the 
leading  statesman  of  the  West.  Mr.  Clay,  by  his  tariff  com 
promise  with  Mr.  Calhoun,  abandoned  his  own  American  sys 
tem.  At  the  same  time  he  brought  forward  a  plan  for  dis 
tributing  among  all  the  States  of  the  Union  the  proceeds  of  the 
sales  of  the  public  lands.  His  bill  for  that  purpose  passed 
both  Houses  of  Congress,  but  was  vetoed  by  President  Jackson, 
who,  in  his  annual  message  of  December,  1832,  formally  recom 
mended  that  all  public  lands  should  be  gratuitously  given 
away  to  individual  adventurers  and  to  the  States  in  which 
the  lands  are  situated."  43 

"No    subject,"   said    Henry    Clay,    "which   has   presented 
itself  to  the  present,  or  perhaps  any  preceding,  Congress,  is  of 
greater  magnitude  than  that  of  the  public  lands."  "  When  we 
43  Adam*'  Memoirs,  ix,  pp.  247,  248. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER          27 

consider  the  far-reaching  effects  of  the  government's  land 
policy  upon  political,  economic,  and  social  aspects  of  Ameri 
can  life,  we  are  disposed  to  agree  with  him.  But  this  legisla 
tion  was  framed  under  frontier  influences,  and  under  the  lead 
of  Western  statesmen  like  Benton  and  Jackson.  Said  Senator 
Scott  of  Indiana  in  1841 :  "  I  consider  the  preemption  law 
merely  declaratory  of  the  custom  or  common  law  of  the  set 
tlers." 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  legislation  with  regard  to  land, 
tariff,  and  internal  improvements  —  the  American  system  of 
the  nationalizing  Whig  party  —  was  conditioned  on  frontier 
ideas  and  needs.  But  it  was  not  merely  in  legislative  action 
that  the  frontier  worked  against  the  sectionalism  of  the  coast. 
The  economic  and  social  characteristics  of  the  frontier  worked 
against  sectionalism.  The  men  of  the  frontier  had  closer 
resemblances  to  the  Middle  region  than  to  either  of  the  other 
sections.  Pennsylvania  had  been  the  seed-plot  of  frontier 
emigration,  and,  although  she  passed  on  her  settlers  along  the 
Great  Valley  into  the  west  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  yet 
the  industrial  society  of  these  Southern  frontiersmen  was 
always  more  like  that  of  the  Middle  region  than  like  that  of 
the  tide-water  portion  of  the  South,  which  later  came  to  spread 
its  industrial  type  throughout  the  South. 

The  Middle  region,  entered  by  New  York  harbor,  was  an 
open  door  to  all  Europe.  The  tide-water  part  of  the  South 
represented  typical  Englishmen,  modified  by  a  warm  climate 
and  servile  labor,  and  living  in  baronial  fashion  on  great  plan 
tations;  New  England  stood  for  a  special  English  movement  — 
Puritanism.  The  Middle  region  was  less  English  than  the 
other  sections.  It  had  a  wide  mixture  of  nationalities,  a  varied 
society,  the  mixed  town  and  county  system  of  local  govern 
ment,  a  varied  economic  life,  many  religious  sects.  In  short, 
it  was  a  region  mediating  between  New  England  and  the  South, 


28         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

and  the  East  and  the  West.  It  represented  that  composite 
nationality  which  the  contemporary  United  States  exhibits, 
that  juxtaposition  of  non-English  groups,  occupying  a  valley 
or  a  little  settlement,  and  presenting  reflections  of  the  map  of 
Europe  in  their  variety.  It  was  democratic  and  nonsectional, 
if  not  national;  "easy,  tolerant,  and  contented;"  rooted 
strongly  in  material  prosperity.  It  was  typical  of  the  modern 
United  States.  It  was  least  sectional,  not  only  because  it  lay 
between  North  and  South,  but  also  because  with  no  barriers 
to  shut  out  its  frontiers  from  its  settled  region,  and  with  a 
system  of  connecting  waterways,  the  Middle  region  mediated 
between  East  and  West  as  well  as  between  North  and  South. 
Thus  it  became  the  typically  American  region.  Even  the  New 
Englander,  who  was  shut  out  from  the  frontier  by  the  Middle 
region,  tarrying  in  New  York  or  Pennsylvania  on  his  west 
ward  march,  lost  the  acuteness  of  his  sectionalism  on  the 
way.44 

The  spread  of  cotton  culture  into  the  interior  of  the  South 
finally  broke  down  the  contrast  between  the  "  tide-water " 
region  and  the  rest  of  the  State,  and  based  Southern  interests 
on  slavery.  Before  this  process  revealed  its  results  the  west 
ern  portion  of  the  South,  which  was  akin  to  Pennsylvania  in 
stock,  society,  and  industry,  showed  tendencies  to  fall  away 
from  the  faith  of  the  fathers  into  internal  improvement  legisla 
tion  and  nationalism.  In  the  Virginia  convention  of  1829-30, 
called  to  revise  the  constitution,  Mr.  Leigh,  of  Chesterfield, 
one  of  the  tide-water  counties,  declared: 

One  of  the  main  causes  of  discontent  which  led 
to  this  convention,  that  which  had  the  strongest 
influence  in  overcoming  our  veneration  for  the  work 
of  our  fathers,  which  taught  us  to  contemn  the  senti- 

44  Author's  article  in  The  &gis  (Madison,  Wis.),  November  4,  1892. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER          29 

ments  of  Henry  and  Mason  and  Pendleton,  which 
weaned  us  from  our  reverence  for  the  constituted 
authorities  of  the  State,  was  an  overweening  pas 
sion  for  internal  improvement.  I  say  this  with 
perfect  knowledge,  for  it  has  been  avowed  to  me 
by  gentlemen  from  the  West  over  and  over  again. 
And  let  me  tell  the  gentleman  from  Albemarle  (Mr. 
Gordon)  that  it  has  been  another  principal  object 
of  those  who  set  this  ball  of  revolution  in  motion, 
to  overturn  the  doctrine  of  State  rights,  of  which 
Virginia  has  been  the  very  pillar,  and  to  remove  the 
barrier  she  has  interposed  to  the  interference  of  the 
Federal  Government  in  that  same  work  of  internal 
improvement,  by  so  reorganizing  the  legislature 
that  Virginia,  too,  may  be  hitched  to  the  Federal 
car. 

It  was  this  nationalizing  tendency  of  the  West  that  trans 
formed  the  democracy  of  Jefferson  into  the  national  republic 
anism  of  Monroe  and  the  democracy  of  Andrew  Jackson.  The 
West  of  the  War  of  1812,  the  West  of  Clay,  and  Benton  and 
Harrison,  and  Andrew  Jackson,  shut  off  by  the  Middle  States 
and  the  mountains  from  the  coast  sections,  had  a  solidarity  of 
its  own  with  national  tendencies.45  On  the  tide  of  the  Father 
of  Waters,  North  and  South  met  and  mingled  into  a  nation. 
Interstate  migration  went  steadily  on  —  a  process  of  cross- 
fertilization  of  ideas  and  institutions.  The  fierce  struggle  of 
the  sections  over  slavery  on  the  western  frontier  does  not  dimin 
ish  the  truth  of  this  statement;  it  proves  the  truth  of  it.  Slav 
ery  was  a  sectional  trait  that  would  not  down,  but  in  the  West 
it  could  not  remain  sectional.  It  was  the  greatest  of  fron 
tiersmen  who  declared :  "  I  believe  this  Government  can  not 

45  Compare  Roosevelt,  "  Thomas  Benton,"  ch.  i. 


30         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.  It  will  become 
all  of  one  thing  or  all  of  the  other."  Nothing  works  for  nation 
alism  like  intercourse  within  the  nation.  Mobility  of  popula 
tion  is  death  to  localism,  and  the  western  frontier  worked  irre 
sistibly  in  unsettling  population.  The  effect  reached  back 
from  the  frontier  and  affected  profoundly  the  Atlantic  coast 
and  even  the  Old  World. 

But  the  most  important  effect  of  the  frontier  has  been  in  the 
promotion  of  democracy  here  and  in  Europe.  As  has  been 
indicated,  the  frontier  is  productive  of  individualism.  Com 
plex  society  is  precipitated  by  the  wilderness  into  a  kind  of 
primitive  organization  based  on  the  family.  The  tendency  is 
anti-social.  It  produces  antipathy  to  control,  and  particularly 
to  any  direct  control.  The  tax-gatherer  is  viewed  as  a  repre 
sentative  of  oppression.  Prof.  Osgood,  in  an  able  article,46 
has  pointed  out  that  the  frontier  conditions  prevalent  in  the 
colonies  are  important  factors  in  the  explanation  of  the  Amer 
ican  Revolution,  where  individual  liberty  was  sometimes  con 
fused  with  absence  of  all  effective  government.  The  same 
conditions  aid  in  explaining  the  difficulty  of  instituting  a 
strong  government  in  the  period  of  the  confederacy.  The 
frontier  individualism  has  from  the  beginning  promoted 
democracy. 

The  frontier  States  that  came  into  the  Union  in  the  first 
quarter  of  a  century  of  its  existence  came  in  with  democratic 
suffrage  provisions,  and  had  reactive  effects  of  the  highest 
importance  upon  the  older  States  whose  peoples  were  being 
attracted  there.  An  extension  of  the  franchise  became  essen 
tial.  It  was  western  New  York  that  forced  an  extension  of 
suffrage  in  the  constitutional  convention  of  that  State  in  1821 ; 
and  it  was  western  Virginia  that  compelled  the  tide-water 

46  Political  Science  Quarterly,  ii,  p.  457.  Compare  Stunner,  "  Alex 
ander  Hamilton,"  chs.  ii-vii. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER          31 

region  to  put  a  more  liberal  suffrage  provision  in  the  constitu 
tion  framed  in  1830,  and  to  give  to  the  frontier  region  a  more 
nearly  proportionate  representation  with  the  tide-water  aris 
tocracy.  The  rise  of  democracy  as  an  effective  force  in  the 
nation  came  in  with  western  preponderance  under  Jackson  and 
William  Henry  Harrison,  and  it  meant  the  triumph  of  the  fron 
tier —  with  all  of  its  good  and  with  all  of  its  evil  elements.47 
An  interesting  illustration  of  the  tone  of  frontier  democracy  in 
1830  comes  from  the  same  debates  in  the  Virginia  convention 
already  referred  to.  A  representative  from  western  Virginia 
declared: 

But,  sir,  it  is  not  the  increase  of  population  in  the 
West  which  this  gentleman  ought  to  fear.  It  is  the 
energy  which  the  mountain  breeze  and  western 
habits  impart  to  those  emigrants.  They  are  regen 
erated,  politically  I  mean,  sir.  They  soon  become 
working  politicians;  and  the  difference,  sir,  between 
a  talking  and  a  working  politician  is  immense.  The 
Old  Dominion  has  long  been  celebrated  for  pro 
ducing  great  orators;  the  ablest  metaphysicians  in 
policy;  men  that  can  split  hairs  in  all  abstruse 
questions  of  political  economy.  But  at  home,  or 
when  they  return  from  Congress,  they  have  negroes 
to  fan  them  asleep.  But  a  Pennsylvania,  a  New 
York,  an  Ohio,  or  a  western  Virginia  statesman, 
though  far  inferior  in  logic,  metaphysics,  and 
rhetoric  to  an  old  Virginia  statesman,  has  this 
advantage,  that  when  he  returns  home  he  takes  off 
his  coat  and  takes  hold  of  the  plow.  This  gives 
him  bone  and  muscle,  sir,  and  preserves  his  repub 
lican  principles  pure  and  uncontaminated. 

4T  Compare  Wilson,  "  Division  and  Reunion,"  pp.  15,  24. 


32         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

So  long  as  free  land  exists,  the  opportunity  for  a  competency 
exists,  and  economic  power  secures  political  power.     But  the 
democracy  born  of  free  land,  strong  in  selfishness  and  individu 
alism,  intolerant  of  administrative  experience  and  education, 
and  pressing  individual  liberty  beyond  its  proper  bounds,  has 
its  dangers  as  well  as  its  benefits.     Individualism  in  America 
has  allowed  a  laxity  in  regard  to  governmental  affairs  which 
has  rendered  possible  the  spoils  system  and  all  the  manifest 
evils  that  follow  from  the  lack  of  a  highly  developed  civic 
spirit.     In  this  connection  may  be  noted  also  the  influence  of 
frontier  conditions  in  permitting  lax  business  honor,  inflated 
paper  currency  and  wild-cat  banking.     The  colonial  and  rev 
olutionary  frontier  was  the  region  whence  emanated  many  of 
the  worst  forms  of  an  evil  currency.48     The  West  in  the  War  of 
1812  repeated  the  phenomenon  on  the  frontier  of  that  day, 
while  the  speculation  and  wild-cat  banking  of  the  period  of  the 
crisis  of  1837  occurred  on  the  new  frontier  belt  of  the  next 
tier  of  States.     Thus  each  one  of  the  periods  of  lax  financial 
integrity  coincides  with  periods  when  a  new  set  of  frontier 
communities  had  arisen,  and  coincides  in  area  with  these  suc 
cessive   frontiers,    for   the   most   part.     The   recent    Populist 
agitation  is  a  case  in  point.     Many  a  State  that  now  declines 
any  connection  with  the  tenets  of  the  Populists,  itself  adhered 
to  such  ideas  in  an  earlier  stage  of  the  development  of  the 
State.     A  primitive  society  can  hardly  be  expected  to  show 
the   intelligent   appreciation   of   the   complexity    of   business 
interests  in  a  developed  society.     The  continual  recurrence  of 
these  areas  of  paper-money  agitation  is  another  evidence  that 
the  frontier  can  be  isolated  and  studied  as  a  factor  in  Amer 
ican  history  of  the  highest  importance.49 

48  On   the  relation  of  frontier  conditions  to  Revolutionary  taxation, 
see  Sumner,  Alexander  Hamilton,  ch.  iii. 
49 1  have  refrained  from  dwelling  on  the  lawless  characteristics  of  the 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER          33 

The  East  has  always  feared  the  result  of  an  unregulated 
advance  of  the  frontier,  and  has  tried  to  check  and  guide  it. 
The  English  authorities  would  have  checked  settlement  at 
the  headwaters  of  the  Atlantic  tributaries  and  allowed  the 
"  savages  to  enjoy  their  deserts  in  quiet  lest  the  peltry  trade 
should  decrease."  This  called  out  Burke's  splendid  protest: 

If  you  stopped  your  grants,  what  would  be  the 
consequence?  The  people  would  occupy  without 
grants.  They  have  already  so  occupied  in  many 
places.  You  can  not  station  garrisons  in  every 
part  of  these  deserts.  If  you  drive  the  people  from 
one  place,  they  will  carry  on  their  annual  tillage 
and  remove  with  their  flocks  and  herds  to  another. 
Many  of  the  people  in  the  back  settlements  are 
already  little  attached  to  particular  situations. 
Already  they  have  topped  the  Appalachian  Moun 
tains.  From  thence  they  behold  before  them  an 
immense  plain,  one  vast,  rich,  level  meadow;  a 
square  of  five  hundred  miles.  Over  this  they 
would  wander  without  a  possibility  of  restraint; 
they  would  change  their  manners  with  their  habits 
of  life;  would  soon  forget  a  government  by  which 
they  were  disowned;  would  become  hordes  of 
English  Tartars;  and,  pouring  down  upon  your 
unfortified  frontiers  a  fierce  and  irresistible  cav- 

frontier,  because  they  are  sufficiently  well  known.  The  gambler  and  des 
perado,  the  regulators  of  the  Carolines  and  the  vigilantes  of  California, 
are  types  of  that  line  of  scum  that  the  waves  of  advancing  civilization 
bore  before  them,  and  of  the  growth  of  spontaneous  organs  of  authority 
where  legal  authority  was  absent.  Compare  Barrows,  "  United  States  of 
Yesterday  and  To-morrow";  Shinn,  "Mining  Camps";  and  Bancroft, 
"  Popular  Tribunals."  The  humor,  bravery,  and  rude  strength,  as  well 
as  the  vices  of  the  frontier  in  its  worst  aspect,  have  left  traces  on  Amer 
ican  character,  language,  and  literature,  not  soon  to  be  effaced. 


34         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

airy,  become  masters  of  your  governors  and  your 
counselers,  your  collectors  and  comptrollers,  and 
of  all  the  slaves  that  adhered  to  them.  Such  would, 
and  in  no  long  time  must,  be  the  effect  of  attempt 
ing  to  forbid  as  a  crime  and  to  suppress  as  an  evil 
the  command  and  blessing  of  Providence,  *'  Increase 
and  multiply."  Such  would  be  the  happy  result 
of  an  endeavor  to  keep  as  a  lair  of  wild  beasts  that 
earth  which  God,  by  an  express  charter,  has  given 
to  the  children  of  men. 

But  the  English  Government  was  not  alone  in  its  desire  to 
limit  the  advance  of  the  frontier  and  guide  its  destinies.  Tide 
water  Virginia  50  and  South  Carolina  51  gerrymandered  those 
colonies  to  insure  the  dominance  of  the  coast  in  their  legis 
latures.  Washington  desired  to  settle  a  State  at  a  time  in  the 
Northwest;  Jefferson  would  reserve  from  settlement  the  terri 
tory  of  his  Louisiana  Purchase  north  of  the  thirty-second  par 
allel,  in  order  to  offer  it  to  the  Indians  in  exchange  for  their 
settlements  east  of  the  Mississippi.  "  When  we  shall  be  full 
on  this  side,"  he  writes,  "  we  may  lay  off  a  range  of  States  on 
the  western  bank  from  the  head  to  the  mouth,  and  so  range 
after  range,  advancing  compactly  as  we  multiply."  Madison 
went  so  far  as  to  argue  to  the  French  minister  that  the  United 
States  had  no  interest  in  seeing  population  extend  itself  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  but  should  rather  fear  it. 
When  the  Oregon  question  was  under  debate,  in  1824,  Smyth, 
of  Virginia,  would  draw  an  unchangeable  line  for  the  limits  of 
the  United  States  at  the  outer  limit  of  two  tiers  of  States 
beyond  the  Mississippi,  complaining  that  the  seaboard  States 
were  being  drained  of  the  flower  of  their  population  by  the 

60  Debates  in  the  Constitutional  Convention,  1829-1830. 

61  [McCrady]  Eminent  and  Representative  Men  of  the  Carolinas,  i,  p. 
43;  Calhoun's  Works,  i,  pp.  401-406. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER          35 

bringing  of  too  much  land  into  market.  Even  Thomas  Benton, 
the  man  of  widest  views  of  the  destiny  of  the  West,  at  this 
stage  of  his  career  declared  that  along  the  ridge  of  the  Rocky 
mountains  "  the  western  limits  of  the  Republic  should  be 
drawn,  and  the  statue  of  the  fabled  god  Terminus  should  be 
raised  upon  its  highest  peak,  never  to  be  thrown  down." B2 
But  the  attempts  to  limit  the  boundaries,  to  restrict  land  sales 
and  settlement,  and  to  deprive  the  West  of  its  share  of  political 
power  were  all  in  vain.  Steadily  the  frontier  of  settlement 
advanced  and  carried  with  it  individualism,  democracy,  and 
nationalism,  and  powerfully  affected  the  East  and  the  Old 
World. 

The  most  effective  efforts  of  the  East  to  regulate  the  frontier 
came  through  its  educational  and  religious  activity,  exerted  by 
interstate  migration  and  by  organized  societies.  Speaking  in 
1835,  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  declared:  "It  is  equally  plain  that 
the  religious  and  political  destiny  of  our  nation  is  to  be  decided 
in  the  West,"  and  he  pointed  out  that  the  population  of  the 
West  "  is  assembled  from  all  the  States  of  the  Union  and 
from  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  is  rushing  in  like  the  water? 
of  the  flood,  demanding  for  its  moral  preservation  the  imme 
diate  and  universal  action  of  those  institutions  which  disci 
pline  the  mind  and  arm  the  conscience  and  the  heart.  And  so 
various  are  the  opinions  and  habits,  and  so  recent  and  imper 
fect  is  the  acquaintance,  and  so  sparse  are  the  settlements  of 
the  West,  that  no  homogeneous  public  sentiment  can  be  formed 
to  legislate  immediately  into  being  the  requisite  institutions. 
And  yet  they  are  all  needed  immediately  in  their  utmost  per 
fection  and  power.  A  nation  is  being  'born  in  a  day.*  .  .  . 
But  what  will  become  of  the  West  if  her  prosperity  rushes 
up  to  such  a  majesty  of  power,  while  those  great  institutions 
linger  which  are  necessary  to  form  the  mind  and  the  conscience 

62  Speech  in  the  Senate,  March  1,  1825;  Register  of  Debates,  i,  721. 


36         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

and  the  heart  of  that  vast  world.  It  must  not  be  permitted. 
.  .  .  Let  no  man  at  the  East  quiet  himself  and  dream  of  lib 
erty,  whatever  may  become  of  the  West.  .  .  .  Her  destiny  is 
our  destiny."  5S 

With  the  appeal  to  the  conscience  of  New  England,  he  adds 
appeals  to  her  fears  lest  other  religious  sects  anticipate  her 
own.  The  New  England  preacher  and  school-teacher  left  their 
mark  on  the  West.  The  dread  of  Western  emancipation  from 
New  England's  political  and  economic  control  was  paralleled 
by  her  fears  lest  the  West  cut  loose  from  her  religion.  Com 
menting  in  1850  on  reports  that  settlement  was  rapidly  extend 
ing  northward  in  Wisconsin,  the  editor  of  the  Home  Missionary 
writes:  "We  scarcely  know  whether  to  rejoice  or  mourn  over 
this  extension  of  our  settlements.  While  we  sympathize  in 
whatever  tends  to  increase  the  physical  resources  and  pros 
perity  of  our  country,  we  can  not  forget  that  with  all  these 
dispersions  into  remote  and  still  remoter  corners  of  the  land 
the  supply  of  the  means  of  grace  is  becoming  relatively  less 
and  less."  Acting  in  accordance  with  such  ideas,  home  mis 
sions  were  established  and  Western  colleges  were  erected. 
As  seaboard  cities  like  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Baltimore 
strove  for  the  mastery  of  Western  trade,  so  the  various  denomi 
nations  strove  for  the  possession  of  the  West.  Thus  an  intel 
lectual  stream  from  New  England  sources  fertilized  the  West. 
Other  sections  sent  their  missionaries;  but  the  real  struggle 
was  between  sects.  The  contest  for  power  and  the  expansive 
tendency  furnished  to  the  various  sects  by  the  existence  of  a 
moving  frontier  must  have  had  important  results  on  the  char 
acter  of  religious  organization  in  the  United  States.  The  mul 
tiplication  of  rival  churches  in  the  little  frontier  towns  had 
deep  and  lasting  social  effects.  The  religious  aspects  of  the 
frontier  make  a  chapter  in  our  history  which  needs  study. 

53  Plea  for  the  West  (Cincinnati,  1835),  pp.  11  ff. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER         37 

From  the  conditions  of  frontier  life  came  intellectual  traits 
of  profound  importance.  The  works  of  travelers  along  each 
frontier  from  colonial  days  onward  describe  certain  common 
traits,  and  these  traits  have,  while  softening  down,  still  per 
sisted  as  survivals  in  the  place  of  their  origin,  even  when  a 
higher  social  organization  succeeded.  The  result  is  that  to  the 
frontier  the  American  intellect  owes  its  striking  characteristics. 
That  coarseness  and  strength  combined  with  acuteness  and 
inquisitiveness ;  that  practical,  inventive  turn  of  mind,  quick 
to  find  expedients;  that  masterful  grasp  of  material  things, 
lacking  in  the  artistic  but  powerful  to  effect  great  ends;  that 
restless,  nervous  energy;  54  that  dominant  individualism,  work 
ing  for  good  and  for  evil,  and  withal  that  buoyancy  and  exuber 
ance  which  comes  with  freedom  —  these  are  traits  of  the  fron 
tier,  or  traits  called  out  elsewhere  because  of  the  existence  of 
the  frontier.  Since  the  days  when  the  fleet  of  Columbus  sailed 
into  the  waters  of  the  New  World,  America  has  been  another 
name  for  opportunity,  and  the  people  of  the  United  States 
have  taken  their  tone  from  the  incessant  expansion  which  has 
not  only  been  open  but  has  even  been  forced  upon  them.  He 
would  be  a  rash  prophet  who  should  assert  that  the  expansive 
character  of  American  life  has  now  entirely  ceased.  Move 
ment  has  been  its  dominant  fact,  and,  unless  this  training  has 
no  effect  upon  a  people,  the  American  energy  will  continually 
demand  a  wider  field  for  its  exercise.  But  never  again  will 
such  gifts  of  free  land  offer  themselves.  For  a  moment,  at  the 

54  Colonial  travelers  agree  in  remarking  on  the  phlegmatic  character 
istics  of  the  colonists.  It  has  frequently  been  asked  how  such  a  people 
could  have  developed  that  strained  nervous  energy  now  characteristic  of 
them.  Compare  Sumner,  "  Alexander  Hamilton,"  p.  98,  and  Adams, 
"  History  of  the  United  States,"  i,  p.  60 ;  ix,  pp.  240,  241.  The  transition 
appears  to  become  marked  at  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812,  a  period  when 
interest  centered  upon  the  development  of  the  West,  and  the  West  was 
noted  for  restless  energy.  Grund,  "  Americans,"  ii,  ch.  i. 


38         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

frontier,  the  bonds  of  custom  are  broken  and  unrestraint  is 
triumphant.  There  is  not  tabula  rasa.  The  stubborn  Ameri 
can  environment  is  there  with  its  imperious  summons  to  accept 
its  conditions;  the  inherited  ways  of  doing  things  are  also 
there;  and  yet,  in  spite  of  environment,  and  in  spite  of  custom, 
each  frontier  did  indeed  furnish  a  new  field  of  opportunity,  a 
gate  of  escape  from  the  bondage  of  the  past;  and  freshness, 
and  confidence,  and  scorn  of  older  society,  impatience  of  its 
restraints  and  its  ideas,  and  indifference  to  its  lessons,  have 
accompanied  the  frontier.  What  the  Mediterranean  Sea  was 
to  the  Greeks,  breaking  the  bond  of  custom,  offering  new 
experiences,  calling  out  new  institutions  and  activities,  that, 
and  more,  the  ever  retreating  frontier  has  been  to  the  United 
States  directly,  and  to  the  nations  of  Europe  more  remotely. 
And  now,  four  centuries  from  the  discovery  of  America,  at  the 
end  of  a  hundred  years  of  life  under  the  Constitution,  the  fron 
tier  has  gone,  and  with  its  going  has  closed  the  first  period  of 
American  history. 


II 

THE  FIRST  OFFICIAL  FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  J 

In  the  "  Significance  of  the  Frontier  in  American  History," 
I  took  for  my  text  the  following  announcement  of  the  Super 
intendent  of  the  Census  of  1890: 

Up  to  and  including  1880  the  country  had  a  fron 
tier  of  settlement  but  at  present  the  unsettled  area 
has  been  so  broken  into  by  isolated  bodies  of  set 
tlement  that  there  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  a  fron 
tier  line.  In  the  discussion  of  its  extent,  the  west 
ward  movement,  etc.,  it  cannot  therefore  any  longer 
have  a  place  in  the  census  reports. 

Two  centuries  prior  to  this  announcement,  in  1690,  a  com 
mittee  of  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  recommended  the 
Court  to  order  what  shall  be  the  frontier  and  to  maintain  a 
committee  to  settle  garrisons  on  the  frontier  with  forty  soldiers 
to  each  frontier  town  as  a  main  guard.2  In  the  two  hundred 
years  between  this  official  attempt  to  locate  the  Massachusetts 
frontier  line,  and  the  official  announcement  of  the  ending  of 
the  national  frontier  line,  westward  expansion  was  the  most 
important  single  process  in  American  history. 

The  designation  "  frontier  town  "  was  not,  however,  a  new 
one.  As  early  as  1645  inhabitants  of  Concord,  Sudbury,  and 

1  Publications  of  the  Colonial  Society  of  Massachusetts,  April,  1914, 
xvii,  250-271.    Reprinted  with  permission  of  the  Society. 

2  Massachusetts  Archives,  xxxvi,  p.  150. 

39 


40         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Dedham,  "being  inland  townes  &  but  thinly  peopled,"  were 
forbidden  to  remove  without  authority;  3  in  1669,  certain  towns 
had  been  the  subject  of  legislation  as  "  frontier  towns;"  *  and 
in  the  period  of  King  Philip's  War  there  were  various  enact 
ments  regarding  frontier  towns.6  In  the  session  of  1675-6  it 
had  been  proposed  to  build  a  fence  of  stockades  or  stone  eight 
feet  high  from  the  Charles  "  where  it  is  navigable "  to  the 
Concord  at  Billerica  and  thence  to  the  Merrimac  and  down 
the  river  to  the  Bay,  "  by  which  meanes  that  whole  tract  will 
[be]  environed,  for  the  security  &  safty  (vnder  God)  of  the 
people,  their  houses,  goods  &  cattel;  from  the  rage  &  fury  of 
the  enimy." 6  This  project,  however,  of  a  kind  of  Roman 
Wall  did  not  appeal  to  the  frontiersmen  of  the  time.  It  was 
a  part  of  the  antiquated  ideas  of  defense  which  had  been  illus 
trated  by  the  impossible  equipment  of  the  heavily  armored 
soldier  of  the  early  Puritan  regime  whose  corslets  and  head 
pieces,  pikes,  matchlocks,  fourquettes  and  bandoleers,  went 
out  of  use  about  the  period  of  King  Philip's  War.  The  fifty- 
seven  postures  provided  in  the  approved  manual  of  arms  for 
loading  and  firing  the  matchlock  proved  too  great  a  handicap 
in  the  chase  of  the  nimble  savage.  In  this  era  the  frontier 
fighter  adapted  himself  to  a  more  open  order,  and  lighter 
equipment  suggested  by  the  Indian  warrior's  practice.7 

The  settler  on  the  outskirts  of  Puritan  civilization  took  up  the 
task  of  bearing  the  brunt  of  attack  and  pushing  forward  the 
line  of  advance  which  year  after  year  carried  American  settle- 

3  Massachusetts  Colony  Records,  ii,  p.  122. 

4  Ibid.,  vol.  iv,  pt.  ii,  p.  439;  Massachusetts  Archives,  cvii,  pp.  160-161. 

5  See,  for  example,  Massachusetts  Colony  Records,  v,  79 ;  Green,  "  Gro- 
ton  During  the  Indian  Wars,"  p.  39 ;  L.  K.  Mathews,  "  Expansion  of  New 
England,"  p.  58. 

6  Massachusetts  Archives,  Ixviii,  pp.  174-176. 

7  Osgood,  "  American  Colonies  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  i,  p.  501, 
and  citations:  cf.  Publications  of  this  Society,  xii,  pp.  38-39. 


FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY       41 

ments  into  the  wilderness.  In  American  thought  and  speech 
the  term  "  frontier  "  has  come  to  mean  the  edge  of  settlement, 
rather  than,  as  in  Europe,  the  political  boundary.  By  1690  it 
was  already  evident  that  the  frontier  of  settlement  and  the 
frontier  of  military  defense  were  coinciding.  As  population 
advanced  into  the  wilderness  and  thus  successively  brought 
new  exposed  areas  between  the  settlements  on  the  one  side 
and  the  Indians  with  their  European  backers  on  the  other, 
the  military  frontier  ceased  to  be  thought  of  as  the  Atlantic 
coast,  but  rather  as  a  moving  line  bounding  the  un-won  wilder 
ness.  It  could  not  be  a  fortified  boundary  along  the  charter 
limits,  for  those  limits  extended  to  the  South  Sea,  and  con 
flicted  with  the  bounds  of  sister  colonies.  The  thing  to  be 
defended  was  the  outer  edge  of  this  expanding  society,  a  chang 
ing  frontier,  one  that  needed  designation  and  re-statement  with 
the  changing  location  of  the  "  West." 

It  will  help  to  illustrate  the  significance  of  this  new  frontier 
when  we  see  that  Virginia  at  about  the  same  time  as  Massa 
chusetts  underwent  a  similar  change  and  attempted  to  establish 
frontier  towns,  or  "  co-habitations,"  at  the  "  heads,"  that  is 
the  first  falls,  the  vicinity  of  Richmond,  Petersburg,  etc.,  of 
her  rivers.8 

The  Virginia  system  of  "  particular  plantations  "  introduced 
along  the  James  at  the  close  of  the  London  Company's  activ 
ity  had  furnished  a  type  for  the  New  England  town.  In  recom 
pense,  at  this  later  day  the  New  England  town  may  have  fur 
nished  a  model  for  Virginia's  efforts  to  create  frontier  settle 
ments  by  legislation. 

8  Hening,  "  Statutes  at  Large,"  iii,  p.  204:  cf.  1  Massachusetts  Historical 
Collections,  v,  p.  129,  for  influence  of  the  example  of  the  New  England 
town.  On  Virginia  frontier  conditions  see  Alvord  and  Bidgood,  "  First 
Explorations  of  the  Trans-Allegheny  Region,"  pp.  23-34,  93-95.  P.  A. 
Bruce,  "  Institutional  History  of  Virginia,"  ii,  p.  97,  discusses  frontier 
defense  in  the  seventeenth  century.  [See  chapter  iii,  post.] 


42         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

An  act  of  March  12,  1694-5,  by  the  General  Court  of  Massa 
chusetts  enumerated  the  "  Frontier  Towns  "  which  the  inhab 
itants  were  forbidden  to  desert  on  pain  of  loss  of  their  lands 
(if  landholders)  or  of  imprisonment  (if  not  landholders), 
unless  permission  to  remove  were  first  obtained.9  These 
eleven  frontier  towns  included  Wells,  York,  and  Kittery  on 
the  eastern  frontier,  and  Amesbury,  Haverhill,  Dunstable, 
Chelmsford,  Groton,  Lancaster,  Marlborough,10  and  Deerfield. 
In  March,  1699-1700,  the  law  was  reenacted  with  the  addi 
tion  of  Brookfield,  Mendon,  and  Woodstock,  together  with 
seven  others,  Salisbury,  Andover,11  Billerica,  Hatfield,  Hadley, 
Westfield,  and  Northampton,  which,  "  tho'  they  be  not  frontiers 
as  those  towns  first  named,  yet  lye  more  open  than  many 
others  to  an  attack  of  an  Enemy."  12 

In  the  spring  of  1704  the  General  Court  of  Connecticut,  fol 
lowing  closely  the  act  of  Massachusetts,  named  as  her  frontier 

8  Massachusetts  Archives,  Ixx,  240 ;  Massachusetts  Province  Laws,  i, 
pp.  194,  293. 

10  In  a  petition  (read  March  3,  1692-3)  of  settlers  "  in  Sundry  Farms 
granted  in  those  Remote  Lands  Scituate  and  Lyeing  between  Sudbury, 
Concord,  Marlbury,  Natick  and   Sherburne   &   Westerly   is   the   Wilder 
ness,"   the  petitioners   ask   easement  of   taxes   and   extension   into   the 
Natick  region  in  order  to  have  means  to  provide  for  the  worship  of  God, 
and  say: 

"  Wee  are  not  Ignorant  that  by  reason  of  the  present  Distressed  Condi 
tion  of  those  that  dwell  in  these  Frontier  Towns,  divers  are  meditating 
to  remove  themselves  into  such  places  where  they  have  not  hitherto  been 
conserned  in  the  present  Warr  and  desolation  thereby  made,  as  also  that 
thereby  they  may  be  freed  from  that  great  burthen  of  public  taxes 
necessarily  accruing  thereby,  Some  haveing  already  removed  themselves. 
Butt  knowing  for  our  parts  that  wee  cannot  run  from  the  hand  of  a 
Jealous  God,  doe  account  it  our  duty  to  take  such  Measures  as  may 
inable  us  to  the  performance  of  that  duty  wee  owe  to  God,  the  King,  & 
our  Familyes"  (Massachusetts  Archives,  cxiii,  p.  1). 

11  In  a  petition  of  1658  Andover  speaks  of  itself  as  "  a  remote  upland 
plantation"  (Massachusetts  Archives,  cxii,  p.  99). 

12  Massachusetts  Province  Laws,  i,  p.  402. 


FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY       43 

towns,  not  to  be  deserted,  Symsbury,  Waterbury,  Danbury, 
Colchester,  Windham,  Mansfield,  and  Plainfield. 

Thus  about  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  and  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century  there  was  an  officially  designated  fron 
tier  line  for  New  England.  The  line  passing  through  these 
enumerated  towns  represents:  (1)  the  outskirts  of  settlement 
along  the  eastern  coast  and  up  the  Merrimac  and  its  tribu 
taries, —  a  region  threatened  from  the  Indian  country  by  way 
of  the  Winnepesaukee  Lake;  (2)  the  end  of  the  ribbon  of 
settlement  up  the  Connecticut  Valley,  menaced  by  the  Canadian 
Indians  by  way  of  the  Lake  Champlain  and  Winooski  River 
route  to  the  Connecticut;  (3)  boundary  towns  which  marked 
the  edges  of  that  inferior  agricultural  region,  where  the  hard 
crystalline  rocks  furnished  a  later  foundation  for  Shays' 
Rebellion,  opposition  to  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Consti 
tution,  and  the  abandoned  farm;  and  (4)  the  isolated  intervale 
of  Brookfield  which  lay  intermediate  between  these  frontiers. 

Besides  this  New  England  frontier  there  was  a  belt  of  set 
tlement  in  New  York,  ascending  the  Hudson  to  where  Albany 
and  Schenectady  served  as  outposts  against  the  Five  Nations, 
who  menaced  the  Mohawk,  and  against  the  French  and  the 
Canadian  Indians,  who  threatened  the  Hudson  by  way  of  Lake 
Champlain  and  Lake  George.13  The  sinister  relations  of  lead 
ing  citizens  of  Albany  engaged  in  the  fur  trade  with  these 
Indians,  even  during  time  of  war,  tended  to  protect  the  Hud 
son  River  frontier  at  the  expense  of  the  frontier  towns  of  New 
England. 

The  common  sequence  of  frontier  types  (fur  trader,  cattle- 

13  Convenient  maps  of  settlement,  1660-1700,  are  in  E.  Channing, 
"  History  of  the  United  States,"  i,  pp.  510-511,  ii,  end;  Avery,  "  History  of 
the  United  States  and  its  People,"  ii,  p.  398.  A  useful  contemporaneous 
map  for  conditions  at  the  close  of  King  Philip's  War  is  Hubbard's  map  of 
New  England  in  his  "  Narrative "  published  in  Boston,  1677.  See  also 
L.  K.  Malhews,  "  Expansion  of  New  England,"  pp.  56-57,  70. 


44         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

raising  pioneer,  small  primitive  farmer,  and  the  farmer  engaged 
in  intensive  varied  agriculture  to  produce  a  surplus  for  export) 
had  appeared,  though  confusedly,  in  New  England.  The 
traders  and  their  posts  had  prepared  the  way  for  the  frontier 
towns,14  and  the  cattle  industry  was  most  important  to  the  early 
farmers.15  But  the  stages  succeeded  rapidly  and  intermingled. 
After  King  Philip's  War,  while  Albany  was  still  in  the  fur- 
trading  stage,  the  New  England  frontier  towns  were  rather 
like  mark  colonies,  military-agricultural  outposts  against  the 
Indian  enemy. 

The  story  of  the  border  warfare  between  Canada  and  the 
frontier  towns  furnishes  ample  material  for  studying  frontier 
life  and  institutions;  but  I  shall  not  attempt  to  deal  with  the 
narrative  of  the  wars.  The  palisaded  meeting-house  square, 
the  fortified  isolated  garrison  houses,  the  massacres  and  cap 
tivities  are  familiar  features  of  New  England's  history.  The 
Indian  was  a  very  real  influence  upon  the  mind  and  morals  as 
well  as  upon  the  institutions  of  frontier  New  England.  The 
occasional  instances  of  Puritans  returning  from  captivity  to 
visit  the  frontier  towns,  Catholic  in  religion,  painted  and 
garbed  as  Indians  and  speaking  the  Indian  tongue,16  and  the 
half-breed  children  of  captive  Puritan  mothers,  tell  a  sensa 
tional  part  of  the  story;  but  in  the  normal,  as  well  as  in  such 
exceptional  relations  of  the  frontier  townsmen  to  the  Indians, 

14  Weeden,  "  Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England,"  pp.  90, 
95,  129-132;  F.  J.  Turner,  "Indian  Trade  in  Wisconsin,"  p.  13;  Mcll- 
wain,  "  Wraxall's  Abridgement,"  introduction ;  the  town  histories  abound 
in  evidence  of  the  significance  of  the  early  Indian  traders'  posts,  transi 
tion  to  Indian  land  cessions,  and  then  to  town  grants. 

15  Weeden,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  64-67 ;  M.  Egleston,  "  New  England  Land  Sys 
tem,"  pp.  31-32;  Sheldon,  "DeerHeld,"  i,  pp.  37,  206,  267-268;  Connecti 
cut  Colonial  Records,  vii,  p.  Ill,  illustrations  of  cattle  brands  in  1727. 

16  Hutchinson,  "History"  (1795),  ii,  p.  129,  note,  relates  such  a  case 
of  a  Groton  man ;  see  also  Parkman,  "  Half-Century,"  vol.  i,  ch.  iv,  citing 
Maurault,  "  Histoire  des  Abenakis,"  p.  377. 


FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY       45 

there  are  clear  evidences  of  the  transforming  influence  of  the 
Indian  frontier  upon  the  Puritan  type  of  English  colonist. 

In  1703-4,  for  example,  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts 
ordered  five  hundred  pairs  of  snowshoes  and  an  equal  number 
of  moccasins  for  use  in  specified  counties  "  lying  Frontier  next 
to  the  Wilderness."  17  Connecticut  in  1704  after  referring  to 
her  frontier  towns  and  garrisons  ordered  that  "  said  company 
of  English  and  Indians  shall,  from  time  to  time  at  the  discre 
tion  of  their  chief  cornander,  range  the  woods  to  indevour  the 
discovery  of  an  approaching  enemy,  and  in  especiall  manner 
from  Westfield  to  Ousatunnuck.18  .  .  .  And  for  the  incourage- 
ment  of  our  forces  gone  or  going  against  the  enemy,  this 
Court  will  allow  out  of  the  publick  treasurie  the  surne  of  five 
pounds  for  every  mans  scalp  of  the  enemy  killed  in  this  Col- 
onie." 19  Massachusetts  offered  bounties  for  scalps,  varying 
in  amount  according  to  whether  the  scalp  was  of  men,  or 
women  and  youths,  and  whether  it  was  taken  by  regular  forces 
under  pay,  volunteers  in  service,  or  volunteers  without  pay.20 
One  of  the  most  striking  phases  of  frontier  adjustment,  was 
the  proposal  of  the  Rev.  Solomon  Stoddard  of  Northampton 
in  the  fall  of  1703,  urging  the  use  of  dogs  "  to  hunt  Indians 
as  they  do  Bears."  The  argument  was  that  the  dogs  would 
catch  many  an  Indian  who  would  be  too  light  of  foot  for 
the  townsmen,  nor  was  it  to  be  thought  of  as  inhuman ;  for  the 
Indians  "  act  like  wolves  and  are  to  be  dealt  with  as  wolves."  21 
In  fact  Massachusetts  passed  an  act  in  1706  for  the  raising  and 
increasing  of  dogs  for  the  better  security  of  the  frontiers,  and 

17  Massachusetts  Archives,  Ixxi,  pp.  4,  84,  85,  87,  88. 

18  Hoosatonic. 

19  Connecticut  Records,  iv,  pp.  463,  464. 

20  Massachusetts  Colony  Records,  v,  p.  72;    Massachusetts  Province 
Laws,  i,  pp.  176,  211,  292,  558,  594,  600;  Massachusetts  Archives,  Ixxi, 
pp.  7,  89,  102.    Cf.  Publications  of  this  Society,  vii,  275-278. 

21  Sheldon,  "  Deerfield,"  i,  p.  290. 


46         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

both  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  in  1708  paid  money  from 
their  treasury  for  the  trailing  of  dogs.22 

Thus  we  come  to  familiar  ground:  the  Massachusetts  fron 
tiersman  like  his  western  successor  hated  the  Indians;  the 
"  tawney  serpents,"  of  Cotton  Mather's  phrase,  were  to  be 
hunted  down  and  scalped  in  accord  with  law  and,  in  at  least 
one  instance  by  the  chaplain  himself,  a  Harvard  graduate,  the 
hero  of  the  Ballad  of  Pigwacket,  who 

manjr  Indians  slew, 
And  some  of  them  he  scalp'd  when  bullets  round  him  flew.23 

Within  the  area  bounded  by  the  frontier  line,  were  the 
broken  fragments  of  Indians  defeated  in  the  era  of  King 
Philip's  War,  restrained  within  reservations,  drunken  and 
degenerate  survivors,  among  whom  the  missionaries  worked 
with  small  results,  a  vexation  to  the  border  towns,24  as  they 
were  in  the  case  of  later  frontiers.  Although,  as  has  been  said, 
the  frontier  towns  had  scattered  garrison  houses,  and  palisaded 
enclosures  similar  to  the  neighborhood  forts,  or  stations,  of 
Kentucky  in  the  Revolution,  and  of  Indiana  and  Illinois  in  the 
War  of  1812,  one  difference  is  particularly  noteworthy.  In 
the  case  of  frontiersmen  who  came  down  from  Pennsylvania 
into  the  Upland  South  along  the  eastern  edge  of  the  Alleghanies, 
as  well  as  in  the  more  obvious  case  of  the  backwoodsmen  of 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  the  frontier  towns  were  too  isolated 
from  the  main  settled  regions  to  allow  much  military  protection 

22  Judd,  "  Hadley,"  p.  272 ;  4  Massachusetts  Historical  Collections,  ii,  p. 
235. 

23  Farmer  and  Moore,  "  Collections,"  iii,  p.  64.    The  frontier  woman 
of  the  farther  west  found  no  more  extreme  representative  than  Hannah 
Dustan  of  Haverhill,  with  her  trophy  of  ten  scalps,  for  which  she  received 
a  bounty  of  £50  (Parkman,  "  Frontenac,"  1898,  p.  407,  note). 

24  For   illustrations  of  resentment   against   those   who    protected    the 
Christian  Indians,  see  F.  W.  Gookin,  "  Daniel  Gookin,"  pp.  145-155. 


FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY       47 

by  the  older  areas.  On  the  New  England  frontier,  because  it 
was  adjacent  to  the  coast  towns,  this  was  not  the  case,  and  here, 
as  in  seventeenth  century  Virginia,  great  activity  in  protecting 
the  frontier  was  evinced  by  the  colonial  authorities,  and  the 
frontier  towns  themselves  called  loudly  for  assistance.  This 
phase  of  frontier  defense  needs  a  special  study,  but  at  present 
it  is  sufficient  to  recall  that  the  colony  sent  garrisons  to  the 
frontier  besides  using  the  militia  of  the  frontier  towns;  and 
that  it  employed  rangers  to  patrol  from  garrison  to  garrison.25 

These  were  prototypes  of  the  regular  army  post,  and  of  rang 
ers,  dragoons,  cavalry  and  mounted  police  who  have  carried 
the  remoter  military  frontier  forward.  It  is  possible  to  trace 
this  military  cordon  from  New  England  to  the  Carolinas  early 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  still  neighboring  the  coast;  by  1840 
it  ran  from  Fort  Snelling  on  the  upper  Mississippi  through 
various  posts  to  the  Sabine  boundary  of  Texas,  and  so  it  passed 
forward  until  to-day  it  lies  at  the  edge  of  Mexico  and  the 
Pacific  Ocean. 

A  few  examples  of  frontier  appeals  for  garrison  aid  will 
help  to  an  understanding  of  the  early  form  of  the  military 
frontier.  Wells  asks,  June  30,  1689: 

1  That  yor  Honre  will  please  to  send  us  speedily  twen 
ty  Eight  good  brisk  men  that  may  be  serviceable  as 
a  guard  to  us  whilest  we  get  in  our  Harvest  of  Hay 
&  Corn,  (we  being  unable  to  Defend  ourselves  &  to 
Do   our  work),  &  .also   to   Persue  &  destroy  the 
Enemy  as  occasion  may  require 

2  That  these  men  may  be  compleatly  furnished  with 

25  For  example,  Massachusetts  Archives,  Ixx,  p.  261 ;  Bailey,  "  An- 
dover,"  p.  179 ;  Metcalf,  "  Annals  of  Mendon,"  p.  63 ;  Proceedings  Massa 
chusetts  Historical  Society,  xliii,  pp.  504-519.  Parkman,  "  Frontenac " 
(Boston,  1898),  p.  390,  and  "  Half -Century  of  Conflict"  (Boston,  1898). 
i,  p.  55,  sketches  the  frontier  defense. 


48         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Arms,  Amunition  &  Provision,  and  that  upon  the 
Countrys  account,  it  being  a  Generall  War.26 

Dunstable,  "  still  weak  and  unable  both  to  keep  our  Gar 
risons  and  to  send  out  men  to  get  hay  for  our  Cattle;  without 
doeing  which  wee  cannot  subsist,"  petitioned  July  23,  1689, 
for  twenty  footmen  for  a  month  "  to  scout  about  the  towne 
while  wee  get  our  hay."  Otherwise,  they  say,  they  must  be 
forced  to  leave.27  Still  more  indicative  of  this  temper  is  the 
petition  of  Lancaster,  March  11,  1675-6,  to  the  Governor  and 
Council:  "As  God  has  made  you  father  over  us  so  you  will 
have  a  father's  pity  to  us."  They  asked  a  guard  of  men  and 
aid,  without  which  they  must  leave.28  Deerfield  pled  in  1678 
to  the  General  Court,  "  unlest  you  will  be  pleased  to  take  us 
(out  of  your  fatherlike  pitty)  and  Cherish  us  in  yor  Bosomes 
we  are  like  Suddainly  to  breathe  out  or  Last  Breath."  29 

The  perils  of  the  time,  the  hardships  of  the  frontier  towns 
and  readiness  of  this  particular  frontier  to  ask  appropriations 
for  losses  and  wounds,30  are  abundantly  illustrated  in  similar 
petitions  from  other  towns.  One  is  tempted  at  times  to  attrib 
ute  the  very  frank  self-pity  and  dependent  attitude  to  a  min 
ister's  phrasing,  and  to  the  desire  to  secure  remission  of  taxes, 
the  latter  a  frontier  trait  more  often  associated  with  riot  than 
with  religion  in  other  regions. 

As  an  example  of  various  petitions  the  following  from  Gro- 
ton  in  1704  is  suggestive.  Here  the  minister's  hand  is  prob 
ably  absent: 

1  That  wharas  by  the  all  dessposing  hand  of  god 
who  orders  all  things  in  infinit  wisdom  it  is  our  por- 

2(5  Massachusetts  Archives,  cvii,  p.  155. 

27  Ibid.,  cvii,  p.  230;  cf.  230  a. 

28  Massachusetts  Archives,  Ixviii,  p.  156. 

29  Sheldon,  "Deerfield,  i,  p.  189. 

30  Massachusetts  Archives,  Ixxi,  46-48,  131,  134,  135  et  passim. 


FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY       49 

tion  to  Hue  In  such  a  part  of  the  land  which  by 
reson  of  the  enemy  Is  becom  vary  dangras  as  by 
wofull  experiants  we  haue  fait  both  formarly  and 
of  late  to  our  grat  damidg  &  discoridgment  and 
espashaly  this  last  yere  hauing  lost  so  many  par 
sons  som  killed  som  captauated  and  som  remoued 
and  allso  much  corn  &  cattell  and  horses  &  hay 
wharby  wee  ar  gratly  Impouerrished  and  brought 
uary  low  &  in  a  uary  pore  capasity  to  subsist  any 
longer  As  the  barers  her  of  can  inform  your 
honors 

2  And  more  then  all  this  our  paster  mr  hobard 
is  &  hath  been  for  aboue  a  yere  uncapable  of  dess- 
pansing  the  ordinances  of  god  amongst  us  &  we 
haue  advised  with  th  Raurant  Elders  of  our  nay- 
boring  churches  and  they  aduise  to  hyare  another 
minister  and  to  saport  mr  hobard  and  to  make  our 
adras  to  your  honours  (we  haue  but  litel  laft  to 
pay  our  deus  with  being  so  pore  and  few  In  numbr 
ather  to  town  or  cuntrey  &  we  being  a  frantere 
town  &  lyable  to  danger  there  being  no  safty  in 
going  out  nor  coming  in  but  for  a  long  time  we 
haue  got  our  brad  with  the  parel  of  our  liues  & 
allso  broght  uery  low  by  so  grat  a  charg  of  bilding 
garisons  &  fortefycations  by  ordur  of  athorety  & 
thar  is  saural  of  our  Inhabitants  ramoued  out  of 
town  &  others  are  prouiding  to  remoue,  axcapt 
somthing  be  don  for  our  Incoridgment  for  we  are 
so  few  &  so  por  that  we  canot  pay  two  ministers 
nathar  ar  we  wiling  to  liue  without  any  we  spand 
so  much  time  in  waching  and  warding  that  we  can 
doe  but  litel  els  &  truly  we  haue  liued  allmost  2 
yers  more  like  soulders  then  other  wise  &  accapt 


50         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

your  honars  can  find  out  some  bater  way  for  our 
safty  and  support  we  cannot  uphold  as  a  town  ather 
by  remitting  our  tax  or  tow  alow  pay  for  building 
the  sauarall  forts  alowed  and  ordred  by  athority 
or  alls  to  alow  the  one  half  of  our  own  Inhabitants  * 
to  be  under  pay  or  to  grant  liberty  for  our  remufe 
Into  our  naiburing  towns  to  tak  cer  for  oursa]fs 
all  which  if  your  honors  shall  se  meet  to  grant 
you  will  hereby  gratly  incoridg  your  humble  pate- 
ceners  to  conflect  with  th  many  trubls  we  are  ensa- 
dant  unto.31 

Forced  together  into  houses  for  protection,  getting  in  their 
crops  at  the  peril  of  their  lives,  the  frontier  townsmen  felt 
it  a  hardship  to  contribute  also  to  the  taxes  of  the  province 

81  Massachusetts  Archives,  Ixxi,  p.  107 :  cf .  Metcalf ,  "  Mendon,"  p.  130 ; 
Sheldon,  "  Deerfield,"  i,  p.  288.  The  frontier  of  Virginia  in  1755  and 
1774  showed  similar  conditions:  see,  for  example,  the  citations  to  Wash 
ington's  Writings  in  Thwaites,  "  France  in  America,"  pp.  193-195 ;  and 
frontier  letters  in  Thwaites  and  Kellogg,  "  Dunmore's  War,"  pp.  227, 
228  et  passim.  The  following  petition  to  Governor  Gooch  of  Virginia, 
dated  July  30,  1742,  affords  a  basis  for  comparison  with  a  Scotch-Irish 
frontier: 

We  your  pettionours  humbly  sheweth  that  we  your  Honours  Loly  and 
Dutifull  Subganckes  hath  ventred  our  Lives  &  all  that  we  have  In  settling 
ye  back  parts  of  Virginia  which  was  a  veri  Great  Hassirt  &  Dengrous, 
for  it  is  the  Hathins  [heathens]  Road  to  ware,  which  has  proved  hortfull 
to  severil  of  ous  that  were  ye  first  settlers  of  these  back  woods  &  wee 
your  Honibill  pettionors  some  time  a  goo  petitioned  your  Honnour  for  to 
have  Commisioned  men  amungst  ous  which  we  your  Honnours  most 
Duttifull  subjects  thought  properist  men  &  men  that  had  Hart  and 
Curidg  to  hed  us  yn  time  of  [war]  &  to  defend  your  Contray  &  your 
poor  Sogbacks  Intrist  from  ye  voilince  of  ye  Haithen  —  But  yet  agine 
we  Humbly  persume  to  poot  your  Honnour  yn  mind  of  our  Great  want 
of  them  in  hopes  that  your  Honner  will  Grant  a  Captins'  Commission  to 
John  McDowell,  with  follring  ofishers,  and  your  Honnours'  Complyence 
in  this  will  be  Great  settisfiction  to  your  most  Duttifull  and  Humbil 
pettioners  —  and  we  as  in  Duty  bond  shall  Ever  pray  .  .  .  (Calendar  of 
Virginia  State  Papers,  i,  p.  235). 


FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY       51 

while  they  helped  to  protect  the  exposed  frontier.  In  addition 
there  were  grievances  of  absentee  proprietors  who  paid  no 
town  taxes  and  yet  profited  by  the  exertions  of  the  frontiers 
men;  of  that  I  shall  speak  later. 

If  we  were  to  trust  to  these  petitions  asking  favors  from  the 
government  of  the  colony,  we  might  impute  to  these  early  fron 
tiersmen  a  degree  of  submission  to  authority  unlike  that  of 
other  frontiersmen,32  and  indeed  not  wholly  warranted  by  the 
facts.  Reading  carefully,  we  find  that,  however  prudently 
phrased,  the  petitions  are  in  fact  complaints  against  taxation; 
demands  for  expenditures  by  the  colony  in  their  behalf;  criti 
cisms  of  absentee  proprietors;  intimations  that  they  may  be 
forced  to  abandon  the  frontier  position  so  essential  to  the 
defense  of  the  settled  eastern  country. 

The  spirit  of  military  insubordination  characteristic  of  the 
frontier  is  evident  in  the  accounts  of  these  towns,  such  as 
Pynchon's  in  1694,  complaining  of  the  decay  of  the  fortifica 
tions  at  Hatfield,  Hadley,  and  Springfield :  "  the  people  a  little 
wilful.  Inclined  to  doe  when  and  how  they  please  or  not  at 
all."  33  Saltonstall  writes  from  Haverhill  about  the  same  time 
regarding  his  ill  success  in  recruiting:  "  I  will  never  plead  for 
an  Haverhill  man  more,"  and  he  begs  that  some  meet  person 
be  sent  "  to  tell  us  what  we  should,  may  or  must  do.  I  have 
laboured  in  vain:  some  go  this,  and  that,  and  the  other  way  at 
pleasure,  and  do  what  they  list."  34  This  has  a  familiar  ring 
to  the  student  of  the  frontier. 

As  in  the  case  of  the  later  frontier  also,  the  existence  of  a 

32  But  there  is  a  note  of  deference  in  Southern  frontier  petitions  to  the 
Continental  Congress  —  to  be  discounted,  however,  by  the  remoteness  of 
that  body.  See  F.  J.  Turner,  "  Western  State-Making  in  the  Revolution 
ary  Era  "  (American  Historical  Review,  i,  pp.  70,  251).  The  demand  for 
remission  of  taxes  is  a  common  feature  of  the  petitions  there  quoted. 

38  Proceedings  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  xliii,  pp.  506  if. 

**lbid.,  xliii,  p.  518. 


52         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

common  danger  on  the  borders  of  settlement  tended  to  con 
solidate  not  only  the  towns  of  Massachusetts  into  united  action 
for  defense,  but  also  the  various  colonies.  The  frontier  was 
an  incentive  to  sectional  combination  then  as  it  was  to  national 
ism  afterward.  When  in  1692  Connecticut  sent  soldiers  from 
her  own  colony  to  aid  the  Massachusetts  towns  on  the  Connec 
ticut  River,35  she  shovred  a  realization  that  the  Deerfield  peo 
ple,  who  were  "in  a  sense  in  the  enemy's  Mouth  almost,"  as 
Pynchon  wrote,  constituted  her  own  frontier 36  and  that  the 
facts  of  geography  were  more  compelling  than  arbitrary  colo 
nial  boundaries.  Thereby  she  also  took  a  step  that  helped  to 
break  down  provincial  antagonisms.  When  in  1689  Massa 
chusetts  and  Connecticut  sent  agents  to  Albany  to  join  with 
New  York  in  making  presents  to  the  Indians  of  that  colony 
in  order  to  engage  their  aid  against  the  French,37  they  recog 
nized  (as  their  leaders  put  it)  that  Albany  was  "the  hinge" 
of  the  frontier  in  this  exposed  quarter.  In  thanking  Connec 
ticut  for  the  assistance  furnished  in  1690  Livingston  said: 
"  I  hope  your  honors  do  not  look  upon  Albany  as  Albany, 
but  as  the  frontier  of  your  honor's  Colony  and  of  all  their 
Majesties  countries."  S8 

The  very  essence  of  the  American  frontier  is  that  it  is  the 
graphic  line  which  records  the  expansive  energies  of  the  people 
behind  it,  and  which  by  the  law  of  its  own  being  continually 
draws  that  advance  after  it  to  new  conquests.  This  is  one 
of  the  most  significant  things  about  New  England's  frontier 
in  these  years.  That  long  blood-stained  line  of  the  eastern 
frontier  which  skirted  the  Maine  coast  was  of  great  impor- 

35  Connecticut  Colonial  Records,  iv,  p.  67. 

86  In  a  petition  of  February  22,  1693-4,  Deerfield  calls  itself  the 
"  most  Utmost  Frontere  Town  in  the  County  of  West  Hampshire " 
(Massachusetts  Archives,  cxiii,  p.  57 a). 

"  Judd,  "  Hadley,"  p.  249. 

38  W.  D.  Schuyler-Lighthall,  "  Glorious  Enterprise,"  p.  16. 


FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY       53 

tance,  for  it  imparted  a  western  tone  to  the  life  and  character 
istics  of  the  Maine  people  which  endures  to  this  day,  and  it 
was  one  line  of  advance  for  New  England  toward  the  mouth 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  leading  again  and  again  to  diplomatic 
negotiations  with  the  powers  that  held  that  river.  The  line 
of  the  towns  that  occupied  the  waters  of  the  Merrimac,  tempted 
the  province  continually  into  the  wilderness  of  New  Hamp 
shire.  The  Connecticut  river  towns  pressed  steadily  up  that 
stream,  along  its  tributaries  into  the  Hoosatonic  valleys,  and 
into  the  valleys  between  the  Green  Mountains  of  Vermont. 
By  the  end  of  1723,  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts 
enacted, — 

That  It  will  be  of  Great  Service  to  all  the  Western 
Frontiers,  both  in  this  and  the  Neighboring  Gov 
ernment  of  Conn.,  to  Build  a  Block  House  above 
Northfield,  in  the  most  convenient  Place  on  the 
Lands  called  the  Equivilant  Lands,  &  to  post  in  it 
forty  Able  Men,  English  &  Western  Indians,  to  be 
employed  in  Scouting  at  a  Good  Distance  up  Conn. 
River,  West  River,  Otter  Creek,  and  sometimes 
Eastwardly  above  the  Great  Manadnuck,  for  the 
Discovery  of  the  Enemy  Coming  towards  anny  of 
the  frontier  Towns."  39 

The  "  frontier  Towns  "  were  preparing  to  swarm.  It  was  not 
long  before  Fort  Dummer  replaced  "  the  Block  House,"  and 
the  Berkshires  and  Vermont  became  new  frontiers. 

The  Hudson  River  likewise  was  recognized  as  another  line 
of  advance  pointing  the  way  to  Lake  Champlain  and  Mon 
treal,  calling  out  demands  that  protection  should  be  secured 
by  means  of  an  aggressive  advance  of  the  frontier.  Canada 

39  Sheldon,  "Deerfield,"  i,  p.  405. 


54 

delenda  est  became  the  rallying  cry  in  New  England  as  well 
as  in  New  York,  and  combined  diplomatic  pressure  and  mili 
tary  expeditions  followed  in  the  French  and  Indian  wars  and 
in  the  Revolution,  in  which  the  children  of  the  Connecticut 
and  Massachusetts  frontier  towns,  acclimated  to  Indian  fight 
ing,  followed  Ethan  Allen  and  his  fellows  to  the  north.40 

Having  touched  upon  some  of  the  military  and  expansive 
tendencies  of  this  first  official  frontier,  let  us  next  turn  to  its 
social,  economic,  and  political  aspects.  How  far  was  this  first 
frontier  a  field  for  the  investment  of  eastern  capital  and  for 
political  control  by  it?  Were  there  evidences  of  antagonism 
between  the  frontier  and  the  settled,  property-holding  classes 
of  the  coast?  Restless  democracy,  resentfulness  over  taxa 
tion  and  control,  and  recriminations  between  the  Western  pion 
eer  and  the  Eastern  capitalist,  have  been  characteristic  features 
of  other  frontiers:  were  similar  phenomena  in  evidence  here? 
Did  "  Populistic  "  tendencies  appear  in  this  frontier,  and  were 
there  grievances  which  explained  these  tendencies?  41 

In  such  colonies  as  New  York  and  Virginia  the  land  grants 
were  often  made  to  members  of  the  Council  and  their  influential 
friends,  even  when  there  were  actual  settlers  already  on  the 
grants.  In  the  case  of  New  England  the  land  system  is  usually 
so  described  as  to  give  the  impression  that  it  was  based  on  a 

40  "  I  want  to  have  your  warriours  come  and  see  me,"  wrote  Allen  to 
the  Indians  of  Canada  in  1775,  "  and  help  me  fight  the  King's  Regular 
Troops.    You  know  they  stand  all  close  together,  rank  and  file,  and  my 
men  fight  so  as  Indians  do,  and  I  want  your  warriours  to  join  with  me 
and  my  warriours,  like  brothers,  and  ambush  the  Regulars:  if  you  will, 
I  will  give  you  money,  blankets,  tomahawks,  knives,  paint,  and  any  thing 
that  there  is  in  the  army,  just  like  brothers;  and  I  will  go  with  you  into 
the  woods  to  scout;  and  my  men  and  your  men  will  sleep  together,  and 
eat  and  drink  together,  and  fight  Regulars,  because  they  first  killed  our 
brothers"  (American  Archives,  4th  Series,  ii,  p.  714). 

41  Compare  A.  McF.  Davis,  "  The  Shays  Rebellion  a  Political  After 
math  "  (Proceedings  American  Antiquarian  Society,  xxi,  pp.  58, 62, 75-79). 


FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY       55 

non-commercial  policy,  creating  new  Puritan  towns  by  free 
grants  of  land  made  in  advance  to  approved  settlers.  This 
description  does  not  completely  fit  the  case.  That  there  was 
an  economic  interest  on  the  part  of  absentee  proprietors,  and 
that  men  of  political  influence  with  the  government  were  often 
among  the  grantees  seems  also  to  be  true.  Melville  Egleston 
states  the  case  thus :  "  The  court  was  careful  not  to  authorize 
new  plantations  unless  they  were  to  be  in  a  measure  under  the 
influence  of  men  in  whom  confidence  could  be  placed,  and 
commonly  acted  upon  their  application."  42  The  frontier,  as 
we  shall  observe  later,  was  not  always  disposed  to  see  the 
practice  in  so  favorable  a  light. 

New  towns  seem  to  have  been  the  result  in  some  cases  of  the 
aggregation  of  settlers  upon  and  about  a  large  private  grant; 
more  often  they  resulted  from  settlers  in  older  towns,  where 
the  town  limits  were  extensive,  spreading  out  to  the  good  lands 
of  the  outskirts,  beyond  easy  access  to  the  meeting-house,  and 
then  asking  recognition  as  a  separate  town.  In  some  cases 
they  may  have  been  due  to  squatting  on  unassigned  lands,  or 
purchasing  the  Indian  title  and  then  asking  confirmation.  In 
others  grants  were  made  in  advance  of  settlement. 

As  early  as  1636  the  General  Court  had  ordered  that  none 
go  to  new  plantations  without  leave  of  a  majority  of  the 
magistrates.43  This  made  the  legal  situation  clear,  but  it 
would  be  dangerous  to  conclude  that  it  represented  the  actual 
situation.  In  any  case  there  would  be  a  necessity  for  the 
settlers  finally  to  secure  the  assent  of  the  Court.  This  could 
be  facilitated  by  a  grant  to  leading  men  having  political  influ 
ence  with  the  magistrates.  The  complaints  of  absentee  pro 
prietors  which  find  expression  in  the  frontier  petitions  of  the 
seventeenth  and  early  eighteenth  century  seem  to  indicate  that 

42  "  Land  System  of  the  New  England  Colonies,"  p.  30. 

43  Massachusetts  Colony  Records,  i,  p.  167. 


56         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

this  happened.  In  the  succeeding  years  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  the  grants  to  leading  men  and  the  economic  and  political 
motives  in  the  grants  are  increasingly  evident.  This  whole 
topic  should  be  made  the  subject  of  special  study.  What  is 
here  offered  is  merely  suggestive  of  a  problem.44 

The  frontier  settlers  criticized  the  absentee  proprietors,  who 
profited  by  the  pioneers'  expenditure  of  labor  and  blood  upon 
their  farms,  while  they  themselves  enjoyed  security  in  an  east 
ern  town.  A  few  examples  from  town  historians  will  illus 
trate  this.  Among  the  towns  of  the  Merrimac  Valley,  Salis 
bury  was  planted  on  the  basis  of  a  grant  to  a  dozen  proprietors 
including  such  men  as  Mr.  Bradstreet  and  the  younger  Dudley, 
only  two  of  whom  actually  lived  and  died  in  Salisbury.45 
Amesbury  was  set  off  from  Salisbury  by  division,  one  half  of 
the  signers  of  the  agreement  signing  by  mark.  Haverhill  was 
first  seated  in  1641,  following  petitions  from  Mr.  Ward,  the 
Ipswich  minister,  his  son-in-law,  Giles  Firmin,  and  others. 
Firmin's  letter  to  Governor  Winthrop,  in  1640,  complains  that 
Ipswich  had  given  him  his  ground  in  that  town  on  condi 
tion  that  he  should  stay  in  the  town  three  years  or  else  he 
could  not  sell  it,  "  whenas  others  have  no  business  but 
range  from  place  to  place  on  purpose  to  live  upon  the  coun- 
trey."  46 

Dunstable's  large  grant  was  brought  about  by  a  combination 
of  leading  men  who  had  received  grants  after  the  survey  of 
1652;  among  such  grants  was  one  to  the  Ancient  and  Honor 
able  Artillery  Company  and  another  to  Thomas  Brattle  of 
Boston.  Apparently  it  was  settled  chiefly  by  others  than  the 

44  Compare  Weeden,  "  Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England," 
i,  pp.  270-271;   Gookin,  "Daniel   Gookin,"  pp.   106-161;    and  the  his 
tories  of  Worcester  for  illustrations  of  how  the  various  factors  noted 
could  be  combined  in  a  single  town. 

45  F.  Merrill,  "  Amesbury,"  pp.  5,  50. 

46  B.  L.  Mirick,  "  Haverhill,"  pp.  9,  10. 


FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY       57 

original  grantees.47  Groton  voted  in  1685  to  sue  the  "non- 
Residenc  "  to  assist  in  paying  the  rate,  and  in  1679  the  Gen 
eral  Court  had  ordered  non-residents  having  land  at  Groton 
to  pay  rates  for  their  lands  as  residents  did.48  Lancaster 
(Nashaway)  was  granted  to  proprietors  including  various 
craftsmen  in  iron,  indicating,  perhaps,  an  expectation  of  iron 
works,  and  few  of  the  original  proprietors  actually  settled  in 
the  town.49  The  grant  of  1653-4  was  made  by  the  Court  after 
reciting:  (1)  that  it  had  ordered  in  1647  that  the  "ordering 
and  disposeing  of  the  Plantation  at  Nashaway  is  wholly  in  the 
Courts  power ";  (2)  "  Considering  that  there  is  allredy  at 
Nashaway  about  nine  Families  and  that  severall  both  free 
men  and  others  intend  to  goe  and  setle  there,  some  whereof 
are  named  in  this  Petition,"  etc. 

Mendon,  begun  in  1660  by  Braintree  people,  is  a  particularly 
significant  example.  In  1681  the  inhabitants  petitioned  that 
while  they  are  not  "  of  the  number  of  those  who  dwell  in  their 
ceiled  houses  &  yet  say  the  time  is  not  come  that  the  Lord's 
house  should  be  built,"  yet  they  have  gone  outside  of  their 
strength  "  unless  others  who  are  proprietors  as  well  as  our 
selves,  (the  price  of  whose  lands  is  much  raysed  by  our  carry 
ing  on  public  work  &  will  be  nothing  worth  if  we  are  forced 
to  quit  the  place)  doo  beare  an  equal  share  in  Town  charges 
with  us.  Those  who  are  not  yet  come  up  to  us  are  a  great  and 
far  yet  abler  part  of  our  Proprietors  .  .  ." B0  In  1684  the 
selectmen  inform  the  General  Court  that  one  half  of  the  pro 
prietors,  two  only  excepted,  are  dwelling  in  other  places,  "  Our 
proprietors,  abroad,"  say  they,  "  object  that  they  see  no  reason 
why  they  should  pay  as  much  for  thayer  lands  as  we  do  for 

47  Green,  "  Early  Records  of  Groton,"  pp.  49,  70,  90. 

48  Ibid. 

49  Worcester  County  History,  i,  pp.  2,  3. 

60  J.  G.  Metcalf,  "  Annals  of  Mendon,"  p.  85. 


58         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

our  Land  and  stock,  which  we  answer  that  if  their  be  not  a 
noff  of  reason  for  it,  we  are  sure  there  is  more  than  enough 
of  necessity  to  supply  that  is  wanting  in  reason."  51  This  is 
the  authentic  voice  of  the  frontier. 

Deerfield  furnishes  another  type,  inasmuch  as  a  considerable 
part  of  its  land  was  first  held  by  Dedham,  to  which  the  grant 
was  made  as  a  recompense  for  the  location  of  the  Natick 
Indian  reservation.  Dedham  shares  in  the  town  often  fell  into 
the  hands  of  speculators,  and  Sheldon,  the  careful  historian  of 
Deerfield,  declares  that  not  a  single  Dedham  man  became  a 
permanent  resident  of  the  grant.  In  1678  Deerfield  petitioned 
the  General  Court  as  follows: 

You  may  be  pleased  to  know  that  the  very  prin 
ciple  &  best  of  the  land;  the  best  for  soile;  the  best 
for  situation;  as  lying  in  y°  centre  &  midle  of  the 
town:  &  as  to  quantity,  nere  half,  belongs  unto 
eight  or  9  proprietors  each  and  every  of  which,  are 
never  like  to  come  to  a  settlement  amongst  us, 
which  we  have  formerly  found  grievous  &  doe 
Judge  for  the  future  will  be  found  intolerable  if 
not  altered.  Or  minister,  Mr.  Mather  ...  &  we 
ourselves  are  much  discouraged  as  judging  the 
Plantation  will  be  spoiled  if  thes  proprietors  may 
not  be  begged,  or  will  not  be  bought  up  on  very 
easy  terms  outt  of  their  Right  .  .  .  Butt  as  long  as 
the  maine  of  the  plantation  Lies  in  men's  hands  that 
can't  improve  it  themselves,  neither  are  ever  like  to 

51  P.  96.  Compare  the  Kentucky  petition  of  1780  given  in  Roosevelt, 
**  Winning  of  the  West,"  ii,  p.  398,  and  the  letter  from  that  frontier  cited 
in  Turner,  "Western  State-Making"  (American  Historical  Review,  i,  p. 
262),  attacking  the  Virginia  "Nabobs,"  who  hold  absentee  land  titles. 
"Let  the  great  men,"  say  they,  "whom  the  land  belongs  to  come  and 
defend  it." 


FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY       59 

putt  such  tenants  on  to  it  as  shall  be  likely  to 
advance  the  good  of  ye  place  in  Civill  or  sacred 
Respects;  he,  ourselves,  and  all  others  that  think 
of  going  to  it,  are  much  discouraged.52 

Woodstock,  later  a  Connecticut  town,  was  settled  under  a 
grant  in  the  Nipmuc  country  made  to  the  town  of  Roxbury. 
The  settlers,  who  located  their  farms  near  the  trading  post 
about  which  the  Indians  still  collected,  were  called  the 
"  go-ers,"  while  the  "  stayers  "  were  those  who  remained  in 
Roxbury,  and  retained  half  of  the  new  grant;  but  it  should 
be  added  that  they  paid  the  go-ers  a  sum  of  money  to  facilitate 
the  settlement. 

This  absentee  proprietorship  and  the  commercial  attitude 
toward  the  lands  of  new  towns  became  more  evident  in  suc 
ceeding  years  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Leicester,  for  exam 
ple,  was  confirmed  by  the  General  Court  in  1713.  The  twenty 
shares  were  divided  among  twenty-two  proprietors,  including 
Jeremiah  Dummer,  Paul  Dudley  (Attorney-General),  William 
Dudley  (like  Paul  a  son  of  the  Governor,  Joseph  Dudley), 
Thomas  Hutchinson  (father  of  the  later  Governor),  John 
Clark  (the  political  leader),  and  Samuel  Sewall  (son  of  the 
Chief  Justice).  These  were  all  men  of  influence,  and  none  of 
the  proprietors  became  inhabitants  of  Leicester.  The  pro 
prietors  tried  to  induce  the  fifty  families,  whose  settlement 
was  one  of  the  conditions  on  which  the  grant  was  made,  to 
occupy  the  eastern  half  of  the  township  reserving  the  rest  as 
their  absolute  property.53 

The  author  of  a  currency  tract,  in  1716,  entitled  "  Some  Con- 

52  Sheldon,  "  Deerfield,"  i,  pp.  188-189. 

53  These  facts  are  stated  on  the  authority  of  E.  Washburn,  "  Leicester," 
pp.  5-15:  compare  Major  Stephen  Sewall  to  Jeremiah  Dummer,  1717, 
quoted  in  Weeden,  "  Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England," 
ii,  p.  505,  note  4 


60         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

siderations  upon  the  Several  Sorts  of  Banks,"  remarks  that  for 
merly,  when  land  was  easy  to  be  obtained,  good  men  came 
over  as  indentured  servants;  but  now,  he  says,  they  are  run 
aways,  thieves,  and  disorderly  persons.  The  remedy  for  this, 
in  his  opinion,  would  be  to  induce  servants  to  come  over  by 
offering  them  homes  when  the  terms  of  indenture  should 
expire.84  He  therefore  advocates  that  townships  should  be 
laid  out  four  or  five  miles  square  in  which  grants  of  fifty  or 
sixty  acres  could  be  made  to  servants.55  Concern  over  the 
increase  of  negro  slaves  in  Massachusetts  seems  to  have  been 
the  reason  for  this  proposal.  It  indicates  that  the  current 
practice  in  disposing  of  the  lands  did  not  provide  for  the  poorer 
people. 

But  Massachusetts  did  not  follow  this  suggestion  of  a  home 
stead  policy.  On  the  contrary,  the  desire  to  locate  towns  to 
create  continuous  lines  of  settlement  along  the  roads  between 
the  disconnected  frontiers  and  to  protect  boundary  claims  by 
granting  tiers  of  towns  in  the  disputed  tract,  as  well,  no  doubt, 
as  pressure  from  financial  interests,  led  the  General  Court 
between  1715  and  1762  to  dispose  of  the  remaining  public 
domain  of  Massachusetts  under  conditions  that  made  specu 
lation  and  colonization  by  capitalists  important  factors.58 
When  in  1762  Massachusetts  sold  a  group  of  townships  in  the 
Berkshires  to  the  highest  bidders  (by  whole  townships),57  the 
transfer  from  the  social-religious  to  the  economic  conception 

54  Compare  the  Virginia  system,  Bruce,  "  Economic  History  of  Vir 
ginia  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,"  ii,  pp.  42,  43. 

65  For  this  item  I  am  indebted  to  our  associate,  Mr.  Andrew  McF. 
Davis:  see  his  "Colonial  Currency  Reprints,"  i,  pp.  335-349. 

66 Hutchinson,  "History  of  Massachusetts"  (1768),  ii,  pp.  331,  332,  has 
an  instructive  comment.  A.  C.  Ford,  "  Colonial  Precedents  of  Our  Na 
tional  Land  System,"  p.  84;  L.  K.  Mathews,  "Expansion  of  New  Eng 
land,"  pp.  82  ff. 

67  J.  G.  Holland,  "  Western  Massachusetts,"  p.  197. 


FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY       61 

was  complete,  and  the  frontier  was  deeply  influenced  by  the 
change  to  "  land  mongering." 

In  one  respect,  however,  there  was  an  increasing  recognition 
of  the  religious  and  social  element  in  settling  the  frontier,  due 
in  part,  no  doubt,  to  a  desire  to  provide  for  the  preservation  of 
eastern  ideals  and  influences  in  the  West.  Provisions  for 
reserving  lands  within  the  granted  townships  for  the  support 
of  an  approved  minister,  and  for  schools,  appear  in  the  seven 
teenth  century  and  become  a  common  feature  of  the  grants  for 
frontier  towns  in  the  eighteenth.58  This  practice  with  respect 
to  the  New  England  frontier  became  the  foundation  for  the 
system  of  grants  of  land  from  the  public  domain  for  the  sup 
port  of  common  schools  and  state  universities  by  the  federal 
government  from  its  beginning,  and  has  been  profoundly  influ 
ential  in  later  Western  States. 

Another  ground  for  discontent  over  land  questions  was  fur 
nished  by  the  system  of  granting  lands  within  the  town  by 
the  commoners.  The  principle  which  in  many,  if  not  all, 
cases  guided  the  proprietors  in  distributing  the  town  lots  is 
familiar  and  is  well  stated  in  the  Lancaster  town  records 
(1653): 

And,  whereas  Lotts  are  Now  Laid  out  for  the 
most  part  Equally  to  Rich  and  poore,  Partly  to 
keepe  the  Towne  from  Scatering  to  farr,  and  partly 
out  of  Charitie  and  Respect  to  men  of  meaner 
estate,  yet  that  Equallitie  (which  is  the  rule  of 
God)  may  be  observed,  we  Covenant  and  Agree, 
That  in  a  second  Devition  and  so  through  all  other 
Devitions  of  Land  the  mater  shall  be  drawne  as 
neere  to  equallitie  according  to  mens  estates  as  wee 

68  Jos.  Schafer,  "  Origin  of  the  System  of  Land  Grants  for  Education," 
pp.  25-33. 


62         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

are  able  to  doe,  That  he  which  hath  now  more 
then  his  estate  Deserveth  in  home  Lotts  and  enter- 
vale  Lotts  shall  haue  so  much  Less:  and  he  that 
hath  Less  then  his  estate  Deserveth  shall  haue  so 
much  more.59 

This  peculiar  doctrine  of  "  equality  "  had  early  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  colony  created  discontents.  Winthrop  explained 
the  principle  which  governed  himself  and  his  colleagues  in 
the  case  of  the  Boston  committee  of  1634  by  saying  that  their 
divisions  were  arranged  "  partly  to  prevent  the  neglect  of 
trades."  This  is  a  pregnant  idea;  it  underlay  much  of  the 
later  opposition  of  New  England  as  a  manufacturing  section 
to  the  free  homestead  or  cheap  land  policy,  demanded  by  the 
West  and  by  the  labor  party,  in  the  national  public  domain. 
The  migration  of  labor  to  free  lands  meant  that  higher  wages 
must  be  paid  to  those  who  remained.  The  use  of  the  town 
lands  by  the  established  classes  to  promote  an  approved  form 
of  society  naturally  must  have  had  some  effect  on  migration. 

But  a  more  effective  source  of  disputes  was  with  respect  to 
the  relation  of  the  town  proprietors  to  the  public  domain  of 
the  town  in  contrast  with  the  non-proprietors  as  a  class.  The 
need  of  keeping  the  town  meeting  and  the  proprietors'  meeting 
separate  in  the  old  towns  in  earlier  years  was  not  so  great 
as  it  was  when  the  new-comers  became  numerous.  In  an 
increasing  degree  these  new-comers  were  either  not  granted 
lands  at  all,  or  were  not  admitted  to  the  body  of  proprietors 
with  rights  in  the  possession  of  the  undivided  town  lands. 
Contentions  on  the  part  of  the  town  meeting  that  it  had  the 
right  of  dealing  with  the  town  lands  occasionally  appear,  signif 
icantly,  in  the  frontier  towns  of  Haverhill,  Massachusetts, 

69  H.  D.  Kurd  (ed.),  "  History  of  Worcester  County,"  i,  p.  6.  The  ital 
ics  are  mine. 


FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY       63 

Simsbury,  Connecticut,  and  in  the  towns  of  the  Connecticut 
Valley.90  Jonathan  Edwards,  in  1751,  declared  that  there  had 
been  in  Northampton  for  forty  or  fifty  years  "  two  parties 
somewhat  like  the  court  and  country  parties  of  England.  .  .  . 
The  first  party  embraced  the  great  proprietors  of  land,  and 
the  parties  concerned  about  land  and  other  matters." 81  The 
tendency  to  divide  up  the  common  lands  among  the  proprietors 
in  individual  possession  did  not  become  marked  until  the 
eighteenth  century;  but  the  exclusion  of  some  from  possession 
of  the  town  lands  and  the  "  equality  "  in  allotment  favoring 
men  with  already  large  estates  must  have  attracted  ambitious 
men  who  were  not  of  the  favored  class  to  join  in  the  move 
ment  to  new  towns.  Religious  dissensions  would  combine  to 
make  frontier  society  as  it  formed  early  in  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  more  and  more  democratic,  dissatisfied  with  the  existing 
order,  and  less  respectful  of  authority.  We  shall  not  under 
stand  the  relative  radicalism  of  parts  of  the  Berkshires,  Ver 
mont  and  interior  New  Hampshire  without  enquiry  into  the 
degree  in  which  the  control  over  the  lands  by  a  proprietary 
monopoly  affected  the  men  who  settled  on  the  frontier. 

The  final  aspect  of  this  frontier  to  be  examined,  is  the  atti 
tude  of  the  conservatives  of  the  older  sections  towards  this 
movement  of  westward  advance.  President  Dwight  in  the  era 
of  the  War  of  1812  was  very  critical  of  the  "  foresters,"  but 
saw  in  such  a  movement  a  safety  valve  to  the  institutions  of 
New  England  by  allowing  the  escape  of  the  explosive  advo 
cates  of  "  Innovation."  62 

Cotton  Mather  is  perhaps  not  a  typical  representative  of  the 
conservative  sentiment  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
but  his  writings  may  partly  reflect  the  attitude  of  Boston  Bay 

60  Egleston,  "  Land  System  of  the  New  England  Colonies,"  pp.  39-41. 

01  Ibid.,  p.  41. 

«2 T.  Dwight,  "Travels"  (1821),  ii,  pp.  459-463. 


64         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

toward  New  England's  first  Western  frontier.  Writing  in  1694 
of  "  Wonderful  Passages  which  have  Occurred,  First  in  the  Pro 
tections  and  then  in  the  Afflictions  of  New  England,"  he  says: 

One  while  the  Enclosing  of  Commons  hath  made 
Neighbours,  that  should  have  been  like  Sheep,  to 
Bite  and  devour  one  another.  .  .  .  Again,  Do  our 
Old  People,  any  of  them  Go  Out  from  the  Institu 
tions  of  God,  Swarming  into  New  Settlements, 
where  they  and  their  Untaught  Families  are  like  to 
Perish  for  Lack  of  Vision?  They  that  have  done 
so,  heretofore,  have  to  their  Cost  found,  that  they 
were  got  unto  the  Wrong  side  of  the  Hedge,  in 
their  doing  so.  Think,  here  Should  this  be  done 
any  more?  We  read  of  Balaam,  in  Num.  22,  23. 
He  was  to  his  Damage,  driven  to  the  Wall,  when  he 
would  needs  make  an  unlawful  Salley  forth  after 
the  Gain  of  this  World.  .  .  .  Why,  when  men,  for 
the  Sake  of  Earthly  Gain,  would  be  going  out  into 
the  Warm  Sun,  they  drive  Through  the  Wall,  and 
the  Angel  of  the  Lord  becomes  their  Enemy. 

In  his  essay  on  "Frontiers  Wei  1-Def  ended  "  (1707)  Mather 
assures  the  pioneers  that  they  "  dwell  in  a  Hatsarmaneth,"  a 
place  of  "  tawney  serpents,"  are  "  inhabitants  of  the  Valley  of 
Achor,"  and  are  "  the  Poor  of  this  World."  There  may  be  sig 
nificance  in  his  assertion:  "It  is  remarkable  to  see  that  when 
the  Unchurched  Villages,  have  been  so  many  of  them,  utterly 
broken  up,  in  the  War,  that  has  been  upon  us,  those  that  have 
had  Churches  regularly  formed  in  them,  have  generally  been 
under  a  more  sensible  Protection  of  Heaven."  "  Sirs,"  he  says, 
"a  Church-Stale  well  form'd  may  fortify  you  wonderfully!  " 
He  recommends  abstention  from  profane  swearing,  furious 


FRONTIER  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY       65 

cursing,  Sabbath  breaking,  unchastity,  dishonesty,  robbing  of 
God  by  defrauding  the  ministers  of  their  dues,  drunkenness, 
and  revels  and  he  reminds  them  that  even  the  Indians  have 
family  prayers!  Like  his  successors  who  solicited  missionary 
contributions  for  the  salvation  of  the  frontier  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley  during  the  forties  of  the  nineteenth  century,  this  early 
spokesman  for  New  England  laid  stress  upon  teaching  anti- 
popery,  particularly  in  view  of  the  captivity  that  might  await 
them. 

In  summing  up,  we  find  many  of  the  traits  of  later  frontiers 
in  this  early  prototype,  the  Massachusetts  frontier.  It  lies  at 
the  edge  of  the  Indian  country  and  tends  to  advance.  It  calls 
out  militant  qualities  and  reveals  the  imprint  of  wilderness 
conditions  upon  the  psychology  and  morals  as  well  as  upon  the 
institutions  of  the  people.  It  demands  common  defense  and 
thus  becomes  a  factor  for  consolidation.  It  is  built  on  the 
basis  of  a  preliminary  fur  trade,  and  is  settled  by  the  combined 
and  sometimes  antagonistic  forces  of  eastern  men  of  property 
(the  absentee  proprietors)  and  the  democratic  pioneers.  The 
East  attempted  to  regulate  and  control  it.  Individualistic  and 
democratic  tendencies  were  emphasized  both  by  the  wilder 
ness  conditions  and,  probably,  by  the  prior  contentions  between 
the  proprietors  and  non-proprietors  of  the  towns  from  which 
settlers  moved  to  the  frontier.  Removal  away  from  the  con 
trol  of  the  customary  usages  of  the  older  communities  and 
from  the  conservative  influence  of  the  body  of  the  clergy, 
increased  the  innovating  tendency.  Finally  the  towns  were 
regarded  by  at  least  one  prominent  representative  of  the  estab 
lished  order  in  the  East,  as  an  undesirable  place  for  the  re-loca 
tion  of  the  pillars  of  society.  The  temptation  to  look  upon 
the  frontier  as  a  field  for  investment  was  viewed  by  the  clergy 
as  a  danger  to  the  "  institutions  of  God."  The  frontier  was 
'•  the  Wrong  side  of  the  Hedge." 


66         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

But  to  this  "  wrong  side  of  the  hedge  "  New  England  men 
continued  to  migrate.  The  frontier  towns  of  1695  were  hardly 
more  than  suburbs  of  Boston.  The  frontier  of  a  century  later 
included  New  England's  colonies  in  Vermont,  Western  New 
York,  the  Wyoming  Valley,  the  Connecticut  Reserve,  and  the 
Ohio  Company's  settlement  in  the  Old  Northwest  Territory. 
By  the  time  of  the  Civil  War  the  frontier  towns  of  New  Eng 
land  had  occupied  the  great  prairie  zone  of  the  Middle  West 
and  were  even  planted  in  Mormon  Utah  and  in  parts  of  the 
Pacific  Coast.  New  England's  sons  had  become  the  organizers 
of  a  Greater  New  England  in  the  West,  captains  of  industry, 
political  leaders,  founders  of  educational  systems,  and 
prophets  of  religion,  in  a  section  that  was  to  influence  the 
ideals  and  shape  the  destiny  of  the  nation  in  ways  to  which  the 
eyes  of  men  like  Cotton  Mather  were  sealed.63 

83  [See  F.  J.  Turner,  "  Greater  New  England  in  the  Middle  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century,'  in  American  Antiquarian  Society  "  Proceedings," 
October  1919,  XXIX.] 


Ill 

THE  OLD  WEST  l 

It  is  not  the  oldest  West  with  which  this  chapter  deals.  The 
oldest  West  was  the  Atlantic  coast.  Roughly  speaking,  it  took 
a  century  of  Indian  fighting  and  forest  felling  for  the  colonial 
settlements  to  expand  into  the  interior  to  a  distance  of  about 
a  hundred  miles  from  the  coast.  Indeed,  some  stretches  were 
hardly  touched  in  that  period.  This  conquest  of  the  nearest 
wilderness  in  the  course  of  the  seventeenth  century  and  in  the 
early  years  of  the  eighteenth,  gave  control  of  the  maritime  sec 
tion  of  the  nation  and  made  way  for  the  new  movement  of  west 
ward  expansion  which  I  propose  to  discuss. 

In  his  "  Winning  of  the  West,' '  Roosevelt  dealt  chiefly  with 
the  region  beyond  the  Alleghanies,  and  with  the  period  of  the 
later  eighteenth  century,  although  he  prefaced  his  account 
with  an  excellent  chapter  describing  the  backwoodsmen  of  the 
Alleghanies  and  their  social  conditions  from  1769  to  1774. 
It  is  important  to  notice,  however,  that  he  is  concerned  with  a 
backwoods  society  already  formed;  that  he  ignores  the  New 
England  frontier  and  its  part  in  the  winning  of  the  West,  and 
does  not  recognize  that  there  was  a  West  to  be  won  between 
New  England  and  the  Great  Lakes.  In  short,  he  is  interested 
in  the  winning  of  the  West  beyond  the  Alleghanies  by  the 
southern  half  of  the  frontier  folk. 

1  Proceedings  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin  for  1908. 
Reprinted  with  the  permission  of  the  Society. 

67 


68         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

There  is,  then,  a  western  area  intermediate  between  the 
coastal  colonial  settlements  of  the  seventeenth  century  and  the 
trans-Alleghany  settlements  of  the  latter  portion  of  the  eigh 
teenth  century.  This  section  I  propose  to  isolate  and  discuss 
under  the  name  of  the  Old  West,  and  in  the  period  from 
about  1676  to  1763.  It  includes  the  back  country  of  New 
England,  the  Mohawk  Valley,  the  Great  Valley  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  the  Piedmont  —  that  is, 
the  interior  or  upland  portion  of  the  South,  lying  between  the 
Alleghanies  and  the  head  of  navigation  of  the  Atlantic  rivers 
marked  by  the  "  fall  line."  2 

In  this  region,  and  in  these  years,  are  to  be  found  the  begin 
nings  of  much  that  is  characteristic  in  Western  society,  for  the 
Atlantic  coast  was  in  such  close  touch  with  Europe  that  its 
frontier  experience  was  soon  counteracted,  and  it  developed 
along  other  lines.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  colonial  back 
country  appealed  so  long  to  historians  solely  in  connection 
with  the  colonial  wars,  for  the  development  of  its  society,  its 
institutions  and  mental  attitude  all  need  study.  Its  history 
has  been  dealt  with  in  separate  fragments,  by  states,  or  towns, 
or  in  discussions  of  special  phases,  such  as  German  and  Scotch- 
Irish  immigration.  The  Old  West  as  a  whole  can  be  appre- 

2  For  the  settled  area  in  1660,  see  the  map  by  Lois  Mathews  in 
Channing,  "  United  States"  (N.  Y.,  1905),  i,  p.  510;  and  by  Albert  Cook 
Myers  in  Avery,  "United  States"  (Cleveland,  1905),  ii,  following  p.  398. 
In  Channing,  ii,  following  p.  603,  is  Marion  F.  Lansing's  map  of  set 
tlement  in  1760,  which  is  on  a  rather  conservative  basis,  especially  the 
part  showing  the  interior  of  the  Carolinas. 

Contemporaneous  maps  of  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  use 
ful  in  studying  the  progress  of  settlement,  are:  Mitchell,  "Map  of  the 
British  Colonies"  (1755);  Evans,  "Middle  British  Colonies"  (1758); 
Jefferson  and  Frye,  "Map  of  Virginia"  (1751  and  1755). 

On  the  geographical  conditions,  see  maps  and  text  in  Powell,  "  Physi 
ographic  Regions '"  (N.  Y.,  1896) ,  and  Willis,  "  Northern  Appalachians," 
in  "Physiography  of  the  United  States"  (N.  Y.,  1896),  pp.  73-S2,  169- 
176,  196-201. 


THE  OLD  WEST  69 

ciated  only  by  obliterating  the  state  boundaries  which  conceal 
its  unity,  by  correlating  the  special  and  fragmentary  studies, 
and  by  filling  the  gaps  in  the  material  for  understanding  the 
formation  of  its  society.  The  present  paper  is  rather  a  recon 
naissance  than  a  conquest  of  the  field,  a  program  for  study 
of  the  Old  West  rather  than  an  exposition  of  it. 

The  end  of  the  period  proposed  may  be  placed  about  1763, 
and  the  beginning  between  1676  and  1700.  The  termination  of 
the  period  is  marked  by  the  Peace  of  Paris  in  1763,  and  the 
royal  proclamation  of  that  year  forbidding  settlement  beyond 
the  Alleghanies.  By  this  time  the  settlement  of  the  Old  West 
was  fairly  accomplished,  and  new  advances  were  soon  made 
into  the  "  Western  Waters  "  beyond  the  mountains  and  into  the 
interior  of  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire.  The  isolation  of  the 
transmontane  settlements,  and  the  special  conditions  and  doc 
trines  of  the  Revolutionary  era  during  which  they  were  formed, 
make  a  natural  distinction  between  the  period  of  which  I  am 
to  speak -and  the  later  extension  of  the  West. 

The  beginning  of  the  period  is  necessarily  an  indeterminate 
date,  owing  to  the  different  times  of  colonizing  the  coastal  areas 
which  served  as  bases  of  operations  in  the  westward  advance. 
The  most  active  movements  into  the  Old  West  occurred  after 
1730.  But  in  1676  New  England,  having  closed  the  exhausting 
struggle  with  the  Indians,  known  as  King  Philip's  War,  could 
regard  her  established  settlements  as  secure,  and  go  on  to  com 
plete  her  possession  of  the  interior.  This  she  did  in  the  midst 
of  conflicts  with  the  exterior  Indian  tribes  which  invaded  her 
frontiers  from  New  York  and  Canada  during  the  French  and 
Indian  wars  from  1690  to  1760,  and  under  frontier  conditions 
different  from  the  conditions  of  the  earlier  Puritan  colonization. 
In  1676,  Virginia  was  passing  through  Indian  fighting  —  keen 
est  along  the  fall  line,  where  the  frontier  lay  —  and  also  expe 
riencing  a  social  revolt  which  resulted  in  the  defeat  of  the 


70         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

democratic  forces  that  sought  to  stay  the  progress  of  aristo 
cratic  control  in  the  colony.3  The  date  marks  the  end  of  the 
period  when  the  Virginia  tidewater  could  itself  be  regarded 
as  a  frontier  region,  and  consequently  the  beginning  of  a  more 
special  interest  in  the  interior. 

Let  us  first  examine  the  northern  part  of  the  movement  into 
the  back  country.  The  expansion  of  New  England  into  the 
vacant  spaces  of  its  own  section,  in  the  period  we  have  chosen 
for  discussion,  resulted  in  the  formation,  of  an  interior  society 
which  contrasted  in  many  ways  with  that  of  the  coast,  and 
which  has  a  special  significance  in  Western  history,  in  that  it 
was  this  interior  New  England  people  who  settled  the  Greater 
New  England  in  central  and  western  New  York,  the  Wyoming 
Valley,  the  Connecticut  Reserve  of  Ohio,  and  much  of  the 
prairie  areas  of  the  Old  Northwest.  It  is  important  to  realize 
that  the  Old  West  included  interior  New  England. 

The  situation  in  New  England  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century  is  indicated  by  the  Massachusetts  act  of  1694  enumerat 
ing  eleven  towns,  then  on  the  frontier  and  exposed  to  raids, 
none  of  which  might  be  voluntarily  deserted  without  leave  of 
the  governor  and  council,  on  penalty  of  loss  of  their  freeholds 
by  the  landowners,  or  fine  of  other  inhabitants.* 

Thus  these  frontier  settlers  were  made  substantially  gar 
risons,  or  "  mark  colonies."  Crowded  into  the  palisades  of  the 
town,  and  obliged  in  spite  of  their  poverty  to  bear  the  brunt  of 
Indian  attack,  their  hardships  are  illustrated  in  the  manly  but 
pathetic  letters  of  Deerfield's  minister,  Mr.  Williams,5  in  1704. 
Parkman  succinctly  describes  the  general  conditions  in  these 
words:  * 

8 See  Osgood,  "American  Colonies"  (N.  Y.,  1907),  iii,  chap.  iii. 
*See  chapter  ii,  ante. 

5  Sheldon,  "  Deerfield  "  (Deerfield,  Mass.,  1895) ,  i,  p.  288. 
•Parkman,  "Frontenac"  (Boston,  1898),  p.  390;  compare  his  descrip- 


THE  OLD  WEST  71 

The  exposed  frontier  of  New  England  was 
between  two  and  three  hundred  miles  long,  and 
consisted  of  farms  and  hamlets  loosely  scat 
tered  through  an  almost  impervious  forest.  .  .  . 
Even  in  so-called  villages  the  houses  were  far 
apart,  because,  except  on  the  seashore,  the  people 
lived  by  farming.  Such  as  were  able  to  do  so 
fenced  their  dwellings  with  palisades,  or  built 
them  of  solid  timber,  with  loopholes,  a  projecting 
upper  story  like  a  block  house,  and  sometimes  a 
flanker  at  one  or  more  of  the  corners.  In  the 
more  considerable  settlements  the  largest  of  these 
fortified  houses  was  occupied  in  time  of  danger  by 
armed  men  and  served  as  a  place  of  refuge  for  the 
neighbors. 

Into  these  places,  in  days  of  alarm,  were  crowded  the  out 
lying  settlers,  just  as  was  the  case  in  later  times  in  the  Ken 
tucky  "  stations." 

In  spite  of  such  frontier  conditions,  the  outlying  towns  con 
tinued  to  multiply.  Between  1720  and  the  middle  of  the  cen 
tury,  settlement  crept  up  the  Housatonic  and  its  lateral  valley 
into  the  Berkshires.  About  1720  Litchfield  was  established; 
in  1725,  Sheffield;  in  1730,  Great  Barrington;  and  in  1735 
a  road  was  cut  and  towns  soon  established  between  Westfield 
and  these  Housatonic  settlements,  thus  uniting  them  with 
the  older  extensions  along  the  Connecticut  and  its  tribu 
taries. 

In  this  period,  scattered  and  sometimes  unwelcome  Scotch- 
Irish  settlements  were  established,  such  as  that  at  Londonderry, 
New  Hampshire,  and  in  the  Berkshires,  as  well  as  in  the  region 

tion  of  Deerfield  in  1704,  in  "Half  Century  of  Conflict"  (Boston,  1898), 
i,  p.  55. 


72         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

won  in  King  Philip's  War  from  the  Nipmucks,  whither  there 
came  also  Huguenots.7 

In  King  George's  War,  the  Connecticut  River  settlers  found 
their  frontier  protection  in  such  rude  stockades  as  those  at  the 
sites  of  Keene,  of  Charlestown,  New  Hampshire  (Number 
Four),  Fort  Shirley  at  the  head  of  Deerfield  River  (Heath), 
and  Fort  Pelham  (Rowe) ;  while  Fort  Massachusetts  (Adams) 
guarded  the  Hoosac  gateway  to  the  Hoosatonic  Valley.  These 
frontier  garrisons  and  the  self-defense  of  the  backwoodsmen 
of  New  England  are  well  portrayed  in  the  pages  of  Parkman.3 
At  the  close  of  the  war,  settlement  again  expanded  into  the 
Berkshires,  where  Lennox,  West  Hoosac  (Williamstown),  and 
Pittsfield  were  established  in  the  middle  of  the  century. 
Checked  by  the  fighting  in  the  last  French  and  Indian  War, 
the  frontier  went  forward  after  the  Peace  of  Paris  (1763)  at 
an  exceptional  rate,  especially  into  Vermont  and  interior 
New  Hampshire.  An  anonymous  writer  gives  a  contemporary 
view  of  the  situation  on  the  eve  of  the  Revolution:  9 

The  richest  parts  remaining  to  be  granted  are  on 
the  northern  branches  of  the  Connecticut  river, 
towards  Crown  Point  where  are  great  districts  of 
fertile  soil  still  unsettled.  The  North  part  of  New 
Hampshire,  the  province  of  Maine,  and  the  terri 
tory  of  Sagadahock  have  but  few  settlements  in 
them  compared  with  the  tracts  yet  unsettled.  .  .  . 

I  should  further  observe  that  these  tracts  have 
since  the  peace  [i.  e.,  1763],  been  settling  pretty 
fast:  farms  on  the  river  Connecticut  are  every  day 
extending  beyond  the  old  fort  Dummer,  for  near 

*  Hanna,  "Scotch  Irish"  (N.  Y.  and  London,  1902),  ii,  pp.  17-24. 
8  "  Half  Century  of  Conflict,"  ii,  pp.  214-234. 
'"American  Husbandry"  (London,  1775),  i,  p.  47. 


THE  OLD  WEST  73 

thirty  miles;  and  will  in  a  few  years  reach  to 
Kohasser  which  is  nearly  two  hundred  miles;  not 
that  such  an  extent  will  be  one-tenth  settled,  but  the 
new-comers  do  not  fix  near  their  neighbors,  and 
go  on  regularly,  but  take  spots  that  please  them 
best,  though  twenty  or  thirty  miles  beyond  any 
others.  This  to  people  of  a  sociable  disposition  in 
Europe  would  appear  very  strange,  but  the  Amer 
icans  do  not  regard  the  near  neighborhood  of  other 
farmers;  twenty  or  thirty  miles  by  water  they 
esteem  no  distance  in  matters  of  this  sort;  besides 
in  a  country  that  promises  well  the  intermediate 
space  is  not  long  in  filling  up.  Between  Connecti 
cut  river  and  Lake  Champlain  upon  Otter  Creek, 
and  all  along  Lake  Sacrament  [George]  and  the 
rivers  that  fall  into  it,  and  the  whole  length  of 
Wood  Creek,  are  numerous  settlements  made  siace 
the  peace.10 

For  nearly  a  hundred  years,  therefore,  New  England  com 
munities  had  been  pushed  out  to  new  frontiers  in  the  intervals 
between  the  almost  continuous  wars  with  the  French  and 
Indians.  Probably  the  most  distinctive  feature  in  this 
frontier  was  the  importance  of  the  community  type  of 
settlement;  in  other  words,  of  the  towns,  with  their  Puritan 
ideals  in  education,  morals,  and  religion.  This  has  always 
been  a  matter  of  pride  to  the  statesmen  and  annalists  of  New 
England,  as  is  illustrated  by  these  words  of  Holland  in  his 
"  Western  Massachusetts,"  commenting  on  the  settlement  of 
the  Connecticut  Valley  in  villages,  whereby  in  his  judgment 
morality,  education,  and  urbanity  were  preserved: 

10  For  the  extent  of  New  England  settlements  in  1760,  compared  with 
1700,  see  the  map  in  Channing,  "  United  States,"  ii,  at  end  of  volume. 


74 

The  influence  of  this  policy  can  only  be  fully 
appreciated  when  standing  by  the  side  of  the  soli 
tary  settler's  hut  in  the  West,  where  even  an  East 
ern  man  has  degenerated  to  a  boor  in  manners, 
where  his  children  have  grown  up  uneducated, 
and  where  the  Sabbath  has  become  an  unknown 
day,  and  religion  and  its  obligations  have  ceased 
to  exercise  control  upon  the  heart  and  life. 

Whatever  may  be  the  real  value  of  the  community  type  of 
settlement,  its  establishment  in  New  England  was  intimately 
connected  both  with  the  Congregational  religious  organization 
and  with  the  land  system  of  the  colonies  of  that  section,  under 
which  the  colonial  governments  made  grants  —  not  in  tracts  to 
individuals,  but  in  townships  to  groups  of  proprietors  who 
in  turn  assigned  lands  to  the  inhabitants  without  cost.  The 
typical  form  of  establishing  a  town  was  as  follows:  On  appli 
cation  of  an  approved  body  of  men,  desiring  to  establish  a 
new  settlement,  the  colonial  General  Court  would  appoint  a 
committee  to  view  the  desired  land  and  report  on  its  fit 
ness;  an  order  for  the  grant  would  then  issue,  in  varying 
areas,  not  far  from  the  equivalent  of  six  miles  square.  In  the 
eighteenth  century  especially,  it  was  common  to  reserve  cer 
tain  lots  of  the  town  for  the  support  of  schools  and  the  min 
istry.  This  was  the  origin  of  that  very  important  feature  of 
Western  society,  federal  land  grants  for  schools  and  colleges.11 
The  General  Courts  also  made  regulations  regarding  the  com 
mon  lands,  the  terms  for  admitting  inhabitants,  etc.,  and  thus 
kept  a  firm  hand  upon  the  social  structure  of  the  new  settle 
ments  as  they  formed  on  the  frontier. 

This  practice,  seen  in  its  purity  in  the  seventeenth  century 

11  Schafer,    "  Land    Grants    for    Education,"    Univ.    of    Wis.    Bulletin 
(Madison,  1902),  chap.  iv. 


THE  OLD  WEST  75 

especially,  was  markedly  different  from  the  practices  of  other 
colonies  in  the  settlement  of  their  back  lands.  For  during 
most  of  the  period  New  England  did  not  use  her  wild  lands,  or 
public  domain,  as  a  source  of  revenue  by  sale  to  individuals  or 
to  companies,  with  the  reservation  of  quit-rents;  nor  attract 
individual  settlers  by  "  head  rights,"  or  fifty-acre  grants,  after 
the  Virginia  type;  nor  did  the  colonies  of  the  New  England 
group  often  make  extensive  grants  to  individuals,  on  the  ground 
of  special  services,  or  because  of  influence  with  the  government, 
or  on  the  theory  that  the  grantee  would  introduce  settlers  on 
his  grant.  They  donated  their  lands  to  groups  of  men  who 
became  town  proprietors  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  com 
munities.  These  proprietors  were  supposed  to  hold  the  lands 
in  trust,  to  be  assigned  to  inhabitants  under  restraints  to  ensure 
the  persistence  of  Puritan  ideals. 

During  most  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  proprietors 
awarded  lands  to  the  new-comers  in  accordance  with  this  theory. 
But  as  density  of  settlement  increased,  and  lands  grew  scarce 
in  the  older  towns,  the  proprietors  began  to  assert  their  legal 
right  to  the  unoccupied  lands  and  to  refuse  to  share  them  with 
inhabitants  who  were  not  of  the  body  of  proprietors.  The  dis 
tinction  resulted  in  class  conflicts  in  the  towns,  especially  in  the 
eighteenth  century,12  over  the  ownership  and  disposal  of  the 
common  lands. 

The  new  settlements,  by  a  process  of  natural  selection, 
would  aiford  opportunity  to  the  least  contented,  whether  be- 

12  On  New  England's  land  system  see  Osgood,  "  American  Colonies " 
(N.  Y.,  1904),  i,  chap,  xi;  and  Eggleston,  "Land  System  of  the  New 
England  Colonies,"  Johns  Hopkins  Univ.  Studies  (Baltimore,  1886),  iv. 
Compare  the  account  of  Virginia,  about  1696,  in  "  Mass.  Hist.  Colls." 
(Boston,  1835),  1st  series,  v,  p.  129,  for  a  favorable  view  of  the  New 
England  town  system;  and  note  the  probable  influence  of  New  Eng 
land's  system  upon  Virginia's  legislation  about  1700.  See  chapter  ii, 
ante. 


76         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

cause  of  grievances,  or  ambitions,  to  establish  themselves. 
This  tended  to  produce  a  Western  flavor  in  the  towns  on  the 
frontier.  But  it  was  not  until  the  original  ideals  of  the  land 
system  began  to  change,  that  the  opportunity  to  make  new 
settlements  for  such  reasons  became  common.  As  the  eco 
nomic  and  political  ideal  replaced  the  religious  and  social 
ideal,  in  the  conditions  under  which  new  towns  could  be  estab 
lished,  this  became  more  possible. 

Such  a  change  was  in  progress  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century  and  during  the  eighteenth.  In  1713,  1715, 
and  1727,  Massachusetts  determined  upon  a  policy  of  locating 
towns  in  advance  of  settlement,  to  protect  her  boundary  claims. 
In  1736  she  laid  out  five  towns  near  the  New  Hampshire  bor 
der,  and  a  year  earlier  opened  four  contiguous  towns  to  con 
nect  her  Housatonic  and  Connecticut  Valley  settlements.13 
Grants  in  non-adjacent  regions  were  sometimes  made  to  old 
towns,  the  proprietors  of  which  sold  them  to  those  who  wished 
to  move. 

The  history  of  the  town  of  Litchfield  illustrates  the  increas 
ing  importance  of  the  economic  factor.  At  a  time  when  Con 
necticut  feared  that  Andros  might  dispose  of  the  public  lands 
to  the  disadvantage  of  the  colony,  the  legislature  granted  a 
large  part  of  Western  Connecticut  to  the  towns  of  Hartford 
and  Windsor,  pro  forma,  as  a  means  of  withdrawing  the  lands 
from  his  hands.  But  these  towns  refused  to  give  up  the  lands 
after  the  danger  had  passed,  and  proceeded  to  sell  part  of 
them.14  Riots  occurred  when  the  colonial  authorities  attempted 
to  assert  possession,  and  the  matter  was  at  length  compromised 

13 Amelia  C.  Ford,  "Colonial  Precedents  of  our  National  Land  Sys 
tem,"  citing  Massachusetts  Bay,  House  of  Rep.  "Journal,"  1715,  pp. 
5,  22,  46;  Hutchinson,  "History  of  Massachusetts  Bay"  (London,  1768), 
ii,  p.  331;  Holland,  "Western  Massachusetts"  (Springfield,  1855),  pp. 
66,  169. 

i*"Conn.  Colon.  Records"  (Hartford,  1874),  viii,  p.  134. 


THE  OLD  WEST  77 

in  1719  by  allowing  Litchfield  to  be  settled  in  accordance 
with  the  town  grants,  while  the  colony  reserved  the  larger 
part  of  northwestern  Connecticut.  In  1737  the  colony  dis 
posed  of  its  last  unlocated  lands  by  sale  in  lots.  In  1762 
Massachusetts  sold  a  group  of  entire  townships  in  the  Berk- 
shires  to  the  highest  bidders.15 

But  the  most  striking  illustration  of  the  tendency,  is  afforded 
by  the  "  New  Hampshire  grants "  of  Governor  Wentworth, 
who,  chiefly  in  the  years  about  1760,  made  grants  of  a  hun 
dred  and  thirty  towns  west  of  the  Connecticut,  in  what  is  now 
the  State  of  Vermont,  but  which  was  then  in  dispute  between 
New  Hampshire  and  New  York.  These  grants,  while  in  form 
much  like  other  town  grants,  were  disposed  of  for  cash,  chiefly 
to  speculators  who  hastened  to  sell  their  rights  to  the  throngs  of 
land-seekers  who,  after  the  peace,  began  to  pour  into  the  Green 
Mountain  region. 

It  is  needless  to  point  out  how  this  would  affect  the  move 
ment  of  Western  settlement  in  respect  to  individualistic  specu 
lation  in  public  lands;  how  it  would  open  a  career  to  the  land 
jobbers,  as  well  as  to  the  natural  leaders  in  the  competitive 
movement  for  acquiring  the  best  lands,  for  laying  out  town  sites 
and  building  up  new  communities  under  "  boom  "  conditions. 
The  migratory  tendency  of  New  Englanders  was  increased  by 
this  gradual  change  in  its  land  policy;  the  attachment  to  a 

15  Holland,  "  Western  Massachusetts,"  p.  197.  See  the  comments  of 
Hutchinson  in  his  "  History  of  Massachusetts  Bay,"  ii,  pp.  331,  332. 
Compare  the  steps  of  Connecticut  men  in  1753  and  1755  to  secure  a  land 
grant  in  Wyoming  Valley,  Pennsylvania,  for  the  Susquehanna  Company, 
and  the  Connecticut  governor's  remark  that  there  was  no  unappropriated 
land  in  the  latter  colony — "Pa.  Colon.  Records"  (Harrisburg,  1851). 
v,  p.  771 ;  "  Pa.  Archives,"  2d  series,  xviii,  contains  the  important  docu 
ments,  with  much  valuable  information  on  the  land  system  of  the  Wyo 
ming  Valley  region.  See  also  General  Lyman's  projects  for  a  Mississippi 
colony  in  the  Yazoo  delta  area  —  all  indicative  of  the  pressure  for  land 
and  the  speculative  spirit. 


78         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

locality  was  diminished.  The  later  years  showed  increasing 
emphasis  by  New  England  upon  individual  success,  greater 
respect  for  the  self-made  man  who,  in  the  midst  of  opportuni 
ties  under  competitive  conditions,  achieved  superiority.  The 
old  dominance  of  town  settlement,  village  moral  police,  and 
traditional  class  control  gave  way  slowly.  Settlement  in  com 
munities  and  rooted  Puritan  hahits  and  ideals  had  enduring 
influences  in  the  regions  settled  by  New  Englanders;  but  it  was 
in  this  Old  West,  in  the  years  just  before  the  Revolution,  that 
individualism  began  to  play  an  important  role,  along  with  the 
traditional  habit  of  expanding  in  organized  communities. 

The  opening  of  the  Vermont  towns  revealed  more  fully  than 
before,  the  capability  of  New  Englanders  to  become  democratic 
pioneers,  under  characteristic  frontier  conditions.  Their  eco 
nomic  life  was  simple  and  self-sufficing.  They  readily  adopted 
lynch  law  (the  use  of  the  "  birch  seal  "  is  familiar  to  readers  of 
Vermont  history)  to  protect  their  land  titles  in  the  troubled 
times  when  these  "  Green  Mountain  Boys  "  resisted  New  York's 
assertion  of  authority.  They  later  became  an  independent 
Revolutionary  state  with  frontier  directness,  and  in  very  many 
respects  their  history  in  the  Revolutionary  epoch  is  similar  to 
that  of  settlers  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  both  in  assertion  of 
the  right  to  independent  self  government  and  in  a  frontier  sep 
aratism.16  Vermont  may  be  regarded  as  the  culmination  of  the 
frontier  movement  which  I  have  been  describing  in  New  Eng 
land. 

By  this  time  two  distinct  New  Englands  existed  —  the 
one  coastal,  and  dominated  by  commercial  interests  and  the 
established  congregational  churches;  the  other  a  primitive 

18  Compare  Vermont's  dealings  with  the  British,  and  the  negotiations 
of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  leaders  with  Spaniards  and  British.  See 
Amer.  Hist.  Review,  i,  p.  252,  note  2,  for  references  on  Vermont's 
Revolutionary  philosophy  and  influence. 


THE  OLD  WEST  79 

agricultural  area,  democratic  in  principle,  and  with  various 
sects  increasingly  indifferent  to  the  fear  of  "  innovation  "  which 
the  dominant  classes  of  the  old  communities  felt.  Already 
speculative  land  companies  had  begun  New  England  settle 
ments  in  the  Wyoming  Valley  of  Pennsylvania,  as  well  as  on 
the  lower  Mississippi;  and  New  England  missions  among  the 
Indians,  such  as  that  at  Stockbridge,  were  beginning  the  note 
worthy  religious  and  educational  expansion  of  the  section  to 
the  west. 

That  this  movement  of  expansion  had  been  chiefly  from  south 
to  north,  along  the  river  valleys,  should  not  conceal  from  us 
the  fact  that  it  was  in  essential  characteristics  a  Western  move 
ment,  especially  in  the  social  traits  that  were  developing.  Even 
the  men  who  lived  in  the  long  line  of  settlements  on  the  Maine 
coast,  under  frontier  conditions,  and  remote  from  the  older 
centers  of  New  England,  developed  traits  and  a  democratic 
spirit  that  relate  them  closely  to  the  Westerners,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  Maine  is  "  down  east  "  by  preeminence.17 

The  frontier  of  the  Middle  region  in  this  period  of  the  for 
mation  of  the  Old  West,  was  divided  into  two  parts,  which 
happen  to  coincide  with  the  colonies  of  New  York  and  Pennsyl 
vania.  In  the  latter  colony  the  trend  of  settlement  was  into 
the  Great  Valley,  and  so  on  to  the  Southern  uplands;  while  the 
advance  of  settlement  in  New  York  was  like  that  of  New  Eng 
land,  chiefly  northward,  following  the  line  of  Hudson  River. 

The  Hudson  and  the  Mohawk  constituted  the  area  of  the  Old 
West  in  this  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  With  them  were 
associated  the  Wallkill,  tributary  to  the  Hudson,  and  Cherry 
Valley  near  the  Mohawk,  along  the  sources  of  the  Susquehanna. 
The  Berkshires  walled  the  Hudson  in  to  the  east;  the  Adiron- 
dacks  and  the  Catskills  to  the  west.  Where  the  Mohawk  Val- 

1T  See  H.  C.  Emery,  "  Artemas  Jean  Haynes "  (New  Haven,  1908) , 
pp.  8-10. 


80         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

ley  penetrated  between  the  mountainous  areas,  the  Iroquois 
Indians  were  too  formidable  for  advance  on  such  a  slender 
line.  Nothing  but  dense  settlement  along  the  narrow  strip 
of  the  Hudson,  if  even  that,  could  have  furnished  the  necessary 
momentum  for  overcoming  the  Indian  barrier;  and  this  pres 
sure  was  lacking,  for  the  population  was  comparatively  sparse 
in  contrast  with  the  task  to  be  performed.  What  most  needs 
discussion  in  the  case  of  New  York,  therefore,  is  not  the  history 
of  expansion  as  in  other  sections,  but  the  absence  of  expansive 
power. 

The  fur-trade  had  led  the  way  up  the  Hudson,  and  made 
beginnings  of  settlements  at  strategic  points  near  the  confluence 
of  the  Mohawk.  But  the  fur-trader  was  not  followed  by  a 
tide  of  pioneers.  One  of  the  most  important  factors  in  restrain 
ing  density  of  population  in  New  York,  in  retarding  the  settle 
ment  of  its  frontier,  and  in  determining  the  conditions  there, 
was  the  land  system  of  that  colony. 

From  the  time  of  the  patroon  grants  along  the  lower  Hudson, 
great  estates  had  been  the  common  form  of  land  tenure. 
Rensselaerswyck  reached  at  one  time  over  seven  hundred  thou 
sand  acres.  These  great  patroon  estates  were  confirmed  by  the 
English  governors,  who  in  their  turn  followed  a  similar  policy. 
By  1732  two  and  one-half  million  acres  were  engrossed  in 
manorial  grants.18  In  1764,  Governor  Golden  wrote 19  that 
three  of  the  extravagant  grants  contain, 

as  the  proprietors  claim,  above  a  million  acres 
each,  several  others  above  200,000.  *  *  * 
Although  these  grants  contain  a  great  part  of  the 
province,  they  are  made  in  trifling  acknowledge 
ments.  The  far  greater  part  of  them  still  remain 

18  Ballagh,  in  Amer.  Hist.  Assoc.  "  Report,"  1897,  p.  110. 
«"N.  Y.  Colon.  Docs,"  vii,  pp.  654,  795. 


THE  OLD  WEST  81 

uncultivated,  without  any  benefit  to  the  commu 
nity,  and  are  likewise  a  discouragement  to  the  set 
tling  and  improving  the  lands  in  the  neighborhood 
of  them,  for  from  the  uncertainty  of  their  bound 
aries,  the  patentees  of  these  great  tracts  are  daily 
enlarging  their  pretensions,  and  by  tedious  and 
most  expensive  law  suits,  distress  and  ruin  poor 
families  who  have  taken  out  grants  near  them. 

He  adds  that  "  the  proprietors  of  the  great  tracts  are  not 
only  freed  from  the  quit-rents,  which  the  other  landholders  in 
the  province  pay,  but  by  their  influence  in  the  assembly  are 
freed  from  every  other  public  tax  on  their  lands." 

In  1769  it  was  estimated  that  at  least  five-sixths  of  the  inhab 
itants  of  Westchester  County  lived  within  the  bounds  of  the 
great  manors  there.20  In  Albany  County  the  Livingston  manor 
spread  over  seven  modern  townships,  and  the  great  Van  Rens- 
selaer  manor  stretched  twenty-four  by  twenty-eight  miles  along 
the  Hudson;  while  still  farther,  on  the  Mohawk,  were  the  vast 
possessions  of  Sir  William  Johnson.21 

20  Becker,  in  Amer.  Hist.  Review,  vi,  p.  261. 

21  Becker,  loc.  cit.    For  maps  of  grants  in  New  York,  see  O'Callaghan, 
"Doc.  Hist,  of  N.  Y."  (Albany,  1850),  i,  pp.  421,  774;  especially  South- 
ier,  "  Chorographical  Map  of  New  York " ;   Winsor,  "  America,"  v,  p. 
236.    In  general  on  these  grants,  consult  also  "  Doc.  Hist,  of  N.  Y.," 
i,  pp.  249-257;  "N.  Y.  Colon.  Docs.,"  iv,  pp.  397,  791,  874;  v,  pp.  459, 
651,  805;  vi,  pp.  486,  549,  743,  876,  950;  Kip,  "Olden  Time"  (N.  Y., 
1872),  p.  12;  Scharf,  "  History  of  Westchester  County"  (Phila.,  1886),  i, 
p.  91 ;   Libby,  "  Distribution  of  Vote  on  Ratification  of  Constitution " 
(Madison,  1894),  pp.  21-25. 

For  the  region  of  the  Wallkill,  including  New  Paltz,  etc.,  see  Eager, 
"Outline  History  of  Orange  County,  New  York"  (Newburgh,  1846-47)  ; 
and  Ruttenber  and  Clark,  "History  of  Orange  County"  (Phila.,  1881), 
pp.  11-20.  On  Cherry  Valley  and  upper  Susquehanna  settlements,  in 
general,  in  New  York,  see  Halsey,  "  Old  New  York  Frontier,"  pp.  5,  119, 
and  the  maps  by  De  Witt  and  Southier  in  O'Callaghan,  "  Doc.  Hist,  of 
N.  Y.,"  i,  pp.  421,  774. 


82         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

It  was  not  simply  that  the  grants  were  extensive,  but  that  the 
policy  of  the  proprietors  favored  the  leasing  rather  than  the 
sale  of  the  lands  —  frequently  also  of  the  stock,  and  taking 
payment  in  shares.  It  followed  that  settlers  preferred  to  go  to 
frontiers  where  a  more  liberal  land  policy  prevailed.  At  one 
time  it  seemed  possible  that  the  tide  of  German  settlement, 
which  finally  sought  Pennsylvania  and  the  up-country  of  the 
South,  might  flow  into  New  York.  In  1710,  Governor  Hunter 
purchased  a  tract  in  Livingston's  manor  and  located  nearly 
fifteen  hundred  Palatines  on  it  to  produce  naval  stores.22  But 
the  attempt  soon  failed;  the  Germans  applied  to  the  Indians 
on  Schoharie  Creek,  a  branch  of  the  Mohawk,  for  a  grant  of 
land  and  migrated  there,  only  to  find  that  the  governor  had 
already  granted  the  land.  Again  were  the  villages  broken  up, 
some  remaining  and  some  moving  farther  up  the  Mohawk, 
where  they  and  accessions  to  their  number  established  the  fron 
tier  settlements  about  Palatine  Bridge,  in  the  region  where,  in 
the  Revolution,  Herkimer  led  these  German  frontiersmen  to 
stem  the  British  attack  in  the  battle  of  Oriskany.  They  consti 
tuted  the  most  effective  military  defense  of  Mohawk  Valley. 
Still  another  portion  took  their  way  across  to  the  waters  of  the 
Susquehanna,  and  at  Tulpehockon  Creek  began  an  important 
center  of  German  settlement  in  the  Great  Valley  of  Pennsyl 
vania.23 

The  most  important  aspect  of  the  history  of  the  movement 
into  the  frontier  of  New  York  at  this  period,  therefore,  was 
the  evidence  which  it  afforded  that  in  the  competition  for  set- 
Note  the  French  Huguenots  and  Scotch-Irish  in  Orange  County,  and 
the  Scotch-Irish  settlers  of  Cherry  Valley  and  their  relation  to  London 
derry,  N.  H.,  as  well  as  the  missionary  visits  from  Stockbridge,  Mass., 
to  the  upper  Susquehanna. 

22 Lord,  "Industrial  Experiments"    (Baltimore,  1898),  p.  45;  Diffen- 
derfer,  "German  Exodus"  (Lancaster,  Pa.,  1897). 
23  See  post. 


THE  OLD  WEST  83 

tlement  between  colonies  possessing  a  vast  area  of  vacant  land, 
those  which  imposed  feudal  tenures  and  undemocratic 
restraints,  and  which  exploited  settlers,  were  certain  to  lose. 

The  manorial  practice  gave  a  bad  name  to  New  York  as  a 
region  for  settlement,  which  not  even  the  actual  opportunities 
in  certain  parts  of  the  colony  could  counteract.  The  diplo 
macy  of  New  York  governors  during  this  period  of  the  Old 
West,  in  securing  a  protectorate  over  the  Six  Nations  and  a 
consequent  claim  to  their  territory,  and  in  holding  them  aloof 
from  France,  constituted  the  most  effective  contribution  of  that 
colony  to  the  movement  of  American  expansion.  When  lands 
of  these  tribes  were  obtained  after  Sullivan's  expedition  in  the 
Revolution  (in  which  New  England  soldiers  played  a  prom 
inent  part),  it  was  by  the  New  England  inundation  into  this 
interior  that  they  were  colonized.  And  it  was  under  conditions 
like  those  prevailing  in  the  later  years  of  the  expansion  of 
settlements  in  New  England  itself,  that  this  settlement  of  inte 
rior  and  western  New  York  was  effected. 

The  result  was,  that  New  York  became  divided  into  two  dis 
tinct  peoples:  the  dwellers  along  Hudson  Valley,  and  the 
Yankee  pioneers  of  the  interior.  But  the  settlement  of  central 
and  western  New  York,  like  the  settlement  of  Vermont,  is  a 
story  that  belongs  to  the  era  in  which  the  trans-Alleghany  West 
was  occupied. 

We  can  best  consider  the  settlement  of  the  share  of  the  Old 
West  which  is  located  in  Pennsylvania  as  a  part  of  the  migra 
tion  which  occupied  the  Southern  Uplands,  and  before  entering 
upon  this  it  will  be  advantageous  to  survey  that  part  of  the 
movement  toward  the  interior  which  proceeded  westward  from 
the  coast.  First  let  us  observe  the  conditions  at  the  eastern 
edge  of  these  uplands,  along  the  fall  line  in  Virginia,  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  in  order  that  the  process 
and  the  significance  of  the  movement  may  be  better  understood. 


84         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

About  the  time  of  Bacon's  Rebellion,  in  Virginia,  strenuous 
efforts  were  made  to  protect  the  frontier  line  which  ran  along 
the  falls  of  the  river,  against  the  attacks  of  Indians.  This 
"  fall  line,"  as  the  geographers  call  it,  marking  the  head  of 
navigation,  and  thus  the  boundary  of  the  maritime  or  lowland 
South,  runs  from  the  site  of  Washington,  through  Richmond, 
and  on  to  Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  and  Columbia,  South  Caro 
lina.  Virginia  having  earliest  advanced  thus  far  to  the  inte 
rior,  found  it  necessary  in  the  closing  years  of  the  seventeenth 
century  to  draw  a  military  frontier  along  this  line.  As  early 
as  1675  a  statute  was  enacted,24  providing  that  paid  troops  of 
five  hundred  men  should  be  drawn  from  the  midland  and  most 
secure  parts  of  the  country  and  placed  on  the  "  heads  of  the 
rivers "  and  other  places  fronting  upon  the  Indians.  What 
was  meant  by  the  "  heads  of  the  rivers,"  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  several  of  these  forts  were  located  either  at  the  falls  of 
the  rivers  or  just  above  tidewater,  as  follows:  one  on  the  lower 
Potomac  in  Stafford  County;  one  near  the  falls  of  the  Rappa- 
hannock;  one  on  the  Mattapony;  one  on  the  Pamunky;  one  at 
the  falls  of  the  James  (near  the  site  of  Richmond) ;  one  near 
the  falls  of  the  Appomattox,  and  others  on  the  Blackwater,  the 
Nansemond,  and  the  Accomac  peninsula,  all  in  the  eastern  part 
of  Virginia. 

Again,  in  1679,  similar  provision  was  made,25  and  an  espe 
cially  interesting  act  was  passed,  making  quasi  manorial  grants 
to  Major  Lawrence  Smith  and  Captain  William  Byrd,  "  to  seate 
certain  lands  at  the  head  [falls]  of  Rappahannock  and  James 
river  "  respectively.  This  scheme  failed  for  lack  of  approval 
by  the  authorities  in  England.28  But  Byrd  at  the  falls  of  the 

2*Hening,  "Va.  Statutes  at  Large"  (N.  Y.,  1823),  ii,  p.  326. 

25  Ibid.,  p.  433. 

2«  Bassett,  "  Writings  of  William  Byrd  "  (N.  Y.,  1901) ,  p.  xxi. 


THE  OLD  WEST  85 

James  near  the  present  site  of  Richmond,  Robert  Beverley  on 
the  Rappahannock,  and  other  frontier  commanders  on  the  York 
and  Potomac,  continued  to  undertake  colonial  defense.  The 
system  of  mounted  rangers  was  established  in  1691,  by  which  a 
lieutenant,  eleven  soldiers,  and  two  Indians  at  the  "  heads  "  or 
falls  of  each  great  river  were  to  scout  for  enemy,27  and  the 
Indian  boundary  line  was  strictly  defined. 

By  the  opening  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  (1701),  the 
assembly  of  Virginia  had  reached  the  conclusion  that  settlement 
would  be  the  best  means  of  protecting  the  frontiers,  and  that 
the  best  way  of  "  settling  in  co-habitations  upon  the  said  land 
frontiers  within  this  government  will  be  by  encouragements  to 
induce  societies  of  men  to  undertake  the  same."  28  It  was 
declared  to  be  inexpedient  to  have  less  than  twenty  fighting  men 
in  each  "  society,"  and  provision  was  made  for  a  land  grant  to 
be  given  to  these  societies  (or  towns)  not  less  than  10,000  nor 
more  than  30,000  acres  upon  any  of  the  frontiers,  to  be  held 
in  common  by  the  society.  The  power  of  ordering  and  manag 
ing  these  lands,  and  the  settling  and  planting  of  them,  was  to 
remain  in  the  society.  Virginia  was  to  pay  the  cost  of  survey, 
also  quit-rents  for  the  first  twenty  years  for  the  two-hundred- 
acre  tract  as  the  site  of  the  "  co-habitation."  Within  this  two 
hundred  acres  each  member  was  to  have  a  half -acre  lot  for  liv 
ing  upon,  and  a  right  to  two  hundred  acres  next  adjacent,  until 
the  thirty  thousand  acres  were  taken  up.  The  members  of  the 

27  Hening,  iii,  p.  82.    Similar  acts  were  passed  almost  annually  in 
successive  years  of  the  seventeenth  century;  cf.  loc.  cit.,  pp.  98,  115, 
119,   126,    164;    the  system  was   discontinued   in   1722  —  see   Beverley, 
"Virginia  and  its  Government"  (London,  1722),  p.  234. 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  recommendation  of  Governor  Dodge 
for  Wisconsin  Territory  in  1836  —  see  Wis.  Terr.  House  of  Reps.  "  Jour 
nal,"  1836,  pp.  11  et  seq. 

28  Hening,  iii,  pp.  204-209. 


86         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

society  were  exempt  from  taxes  for  twenty  years,  and  from  the 
requirements  of  military  duty  except  such  as  they  imposed  upon 
themselves.  The  resemblance  to  the  New  England  town  is  ob 
vious. 

"  Provided  alwayes,"  ran  the  quaint  statute,  "  and  it  is  the 
true  intent  and  meaning  of  this  act  that  for  every  five  hundred 
acres  of  land  to  be  granted  in  pursuance  of  this  act  there  shall 
be  and  shall  be  continually  kept  upon  the  said  land  one  chris- 
tian  man  between  sixteen  and  sixty  years  of  age  perfect  of 
limb,  able  and  fitt  for  service  who  shall  alsoe  be  continually 
provided  with  a  well  fixed  musquett  or  fuzee,  a  good  pistoll, 
sharp  simeter,  tomahawk  and  five  pounds  of  good  clean  pistoll 
powder  and  twenty  pounds  of  sizable  leaden  bulletts  or  swan 
or  goose  shott  to  be  kept  within  the  fort  directed  by  this  act 
besides  the  powder  and  shott  for  his  necessary  or  useful  shoot 
ing  at  game.  Provided  also  that  the  said  warlike  Christian 
man  shall  have  his  dwelling  and  continual  abode  within  the 
space  of  two  hundred  acres  of  land  to  be  laid  out  in  a  geometri- 
call  square  or  as  near  that  figure  as  conveniency  will  admit," 
etc.  Within  two  years  the  society  was  required  to  cause  a  half 
acre  in  the  middle  of  the  "  co-habitation "  to  be  palisaded 
"  with  good  sound  pallisadoes  at  least  thirteen  foot  long  and 
six  inches  diameter  in  the  middle  of  the  length  thereof,  and  set 
double  and  at  least  three  foot  within  the  ground. 

Such  in  1701  was  the  idea  of  the  Virginia  tidewater  assembly 
of  a  frontiersman,  and  of  the  frontier  towns  by  which  the  Old 
Dominion  should  spread  her  population  into  the  upland  South. 
But  the  "  warlike  Christian  man  "  who  actually  came  to  furnish 
the  firing  line  for  Virginia,  was  destined  to  be  the  Scotch-Irish 
man  and  the  German  with  long  rifle  in  place  of  "  fuzee  "  and 
"simeter,"  and  altogether  too  restless  to  have  his  continual 
abode  within  the  space  of  two  hundred  acres.  Nevertheless 
there  are  points  of  resemblance  between  this  idea  of  societies 


THE  OLD  WEST  87 

settled  about  a  fortified  town  and  the  later  "  stations  "  of  Ken 
tucky.29 

By  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  engrossing 
of  the  lands  of  lowland  Virginia  had  progressed  so  far,  the 
practice  of  holding  large  tracts  of  wasteland  for  reserves  in  the 
great  plantations  had  become  so  common,  that  the  authorities 
of  Virginia  reported  to  the  home  government  that  the  best  lands 
were  all  taken  up,30  and  settlers  were  passing  into  North  Caro 
lina  seeking  cheap  lands  near  navigable  rivers.  Attention  was 
directed  also  to  the  Piedmont  portions  of  Virginia,  for  by  this 
time  the  Indians  were  conquered  in  this  region.  It  was  now 
possible  to  acquire  land  by  purchase  31  at  five  shillings  sterling 
for  fifty  acres,  as  well  as  by  head-rights  for  importation  or  set 
tlement,  and  land  speculation  soon  turned  to  the  new  area. 

Already  the  Piedmont  had  been  somewhat  explored.82  Even 
by  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  fur-traders  had  fol 
lowed  the  trail  southwest  from  the  James  more  than  four  hun 
dred  miles  to  the  Catawbas  and  later  to  the  Cherokees.  Col. 
William  Byrd  had,  as  we  have  seen,  not  only  been  absorbing 
good  lands  in  the  lowlands,  and  defending  his  post  at  the  falls 
of  the  James,  like  a  Count  of  the  Border,  but  he  also  engaged  in 
this  fur-trade  and  sent  his  pack  trains  along  this  trail  through 
the  Piedmont  of  the  Carolinas,33  and  took  note  of  the  rich  sav- 

29  Compare  the  law  of  1779  in  "  Va.  Revised  Code"  (1819),  ii,  p.  357; 
Ranck's  "  Boonesborough  "  (Louisville,  1901). 

s°Bassett,  "Writings  of  Byrd,"  p.  xii;  "Calendar  of  British  State 
Papers,  Am.  and  W.  I.,"  1677-80  (London,  1896) ,  p.  168. 

31Bassett,  loc.  cit.,  p.  x,  and  Hening,  iii,  p.  304  (1705). 

32  [See  Alvord  and  Bidgood,  "  First  Explorations  of  the  Trans-Alle 
gheny  Region."] 

33  Bassett,  "  Writings  of  Byrd,"  pp.  xvii,  xviii,  quotes  Byrd's  descrip 
tion  of  the  trail;   Logan,  "Upper  South  Carolina"    (Columbia,  1859), 
i,    p.    167;    Adair    describes    the    trade    somewhat   later;    cf.    Bartram, 
"Travels"  (London,  1792),  passim,  and  Monette,  "Mississippi  Valley" 
(N.  Y.,  1846),  ii,  p.  13. 


88         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

annas  of  that  region.  Charleston  traders  engaged  in  rivalry 
for  this  trade. 

It  was  not  long  before  cattle  raisers  from  the  older  settle 
ments,  learning  from  the  traders  of  the  fertile  plains  and  pea- 
vine  pastures  of  this  land,  followed  the  fur-traders  and  erected 
scattered  "  cow-pens  "  or  ranches  beyond  the  line  of  planta 
tions  in  the  Piedmont.  Even  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  herds  of  wild  horses  and  cattle  ranged  at  the  outskirts 
of  the  Virginia  settlements,  and  were  hunted  by  the  planters, 
driven  into  pens,  and  branded  somewhat  after  the  manner  of 
the  later  ranching  on  the  Great  Plains.34  Now  the  cow-drovers 
and  the  cow-pens  35  began  to  enter  the  uplands.  The  Indians 
had  by  this  time  been  reduced  to  submission  in  most  of  the 
Virginia  Piedmont  —  as  Governor  Spotswood  30  reported  in 
1712,  living  "  quietly  on  our  frontiers,  trafficking  with  the 
Inhabitants." 

After  the  defeat  of  the  Tuscaroras  and  Yemassees  about  this 
time  in  the  Carolinas,  similar  opportunities  for  expansion 
existed  there.  The  cattle  drovers  sometimes  took  their  herds 
from  range  to  range;  sometimes  they  were  gathered  perma 
nently  near  the  pens,  finding  the  range  sufficient  throughout 
the  year.  They  were  driven  to  Charleston,  or  later  some- 

"  Bruce,  "Economic  Hist,  of  Va."  (N.  Y.,  1896),  i,  pp.  473,  475,  477. 

35  See  descriptions  of  cow-pens  in  Logan,  "  History  of  Upper  S.  C.," 
i,  p.  151 ;  Bartram,  "  Travels,"  p.  308.  On  cattle  raising  generally  in 
the  Piedmont,  see:  Gregg,  "Old  Cheraws  "  (N.  Y.,  1867),  pp.  68,  108- 
110;  Salley,  "Orangeburg"  (Orangeburg,  1898),  pp.  219-221;  Lawson, 
"New  Voyage  to  Carolina"  (Raleigh,  1860),  p.  135;  Ramsay,  "South 
Carolina"  (Charleston,  1809),  i,  p.  207;  J.  F.  D.  Smyth,  "Tour"  (Lon 
don,  1784),  i,  p.  143,  ii,  pp.  78,  97;  Foote,  "Sketches  of  N.  C."  (N.  Y., 
1846),  p.  77;  "N.  C.  Colon.  Records"  (Raleigh,  1887),  v,  pp.  xli,  1193, 
1223;  "American  Husbandry"  (London,  1775),  i,  pp.  336,  350,  384; 
Hening,  v.  pp.  176,  245. 

38 Spotswood,  "Letters"  (Richmond,  1882),  i,  p.  167;  compare  Va. 
Magazine,  iii,  pp.  120,  189. 


THE  OLD  WEST  89 

times  even  to  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  markets.  By  the 
middle  of  the  century,  disease  worked  havoc  with  them  in 
South  Carolina  37  and  destroyed  seven-eighths  of  those  in  North 
Carolina;  Virginia  made  regulations  governing  the  driving  of 
cattle  through  her  frontier  counties  to  avoid  the  disease,  just 
as  in  our  own  time  the  northern  cattlemen  attempted  to  protect 
their  herds  against  the  Texas  fever. 

Thus  cattle  raisers  from  the  coast  followed  the  fur-traders 
toward  the  uplands,  and  already  pioneer  farmers  were  strag 
gling  into  the  same  region,  soon  to  be  outnumbered  by  the  tide 
of  settlement  that  flowed  into  the  region  from  Pennsylvania. 

The  descriptions  of  the  uplands  by  contemporaneous  writers 
are  in  glowing  terms.  Makemie,  in  his  "  Plain  and  Friendly 
Persuasion"  (1705),  declared  "The  best,  richest,  and  most 
healthy  part  of  your  Country  is  yet  to  be  inhabited,  above  the 
falls  of  every  River,  to  the  Mountains."  Jones,  in  his  "  Present 
State  of  Virginia"  (1724),  comments  on  the  convenience  of 
tidewater  transportation,  etc.,  but  declares  that  section  "  not 
nearly  so  healthy  as  the  uplands  and  Barrens  which  serve  for 
Ranges  for  Stock,"  although  he  speaks  less  enthusiastically 
of  the  savannas  and  marshes  which  lay  in  the  midst  of  the 
forest  areas.  In  fact,  the  Piedmont  was  by  no  means  the 
unbroken  forest  that  might  have  been  imagined,  for  in  addi 
tion  to  natural  meadows,  the  Indians  had  burned  over  large 
tracts.38  It  was  a  rare  combination  of  woodland  and  pasture, 
with  clear  running  streams  and  mild  climate.39 

«  "  N.  C.  Colon.  Records,"  v,  p.  xli. 

38 Lawson,  "Carolina"  (Raleigh,  1860),  gives  a  description  early  in 
the  eighteenth  century ;  his  map  is  reproduced  in  Avery,  "  United  States  " 
(Cleveland,  1907),  iii,  p.  224. 

39  The  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  the  Piedmont  regiow  of  the 
Carolinas  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  are  illustrated  in 
Spangenburg's  diary,  in  "  N.  C.  Colon.  Records,"  v,  pp.  6,  ?,  13,  14 
Compare  "  American  Husbandry,"  i,  pp.  220,  332,  357,  388. 


90         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  occupation  of  the  Virginia  Piedmont  received  a  special 
impetus  from  the  interest  which  Governor  Spotswood  took  in 
the  frontier.  In  1710  he  proposed  a  plan  for  intercepting  the 
French  in  their  occupation  of  the  interior,  by  inducing  Virginia 
settlement  to  proceed  along  one  side  of  James  River  only, 
until  this  column  of  advancing  pioneers  should  strike  the  atten 
uated  line  of  French  posts  in  the  center.  In  the  same  year 
he  sent  a  body  of  horsemen  to  the  top  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  where 
they  could  overlook  the  Valley  of  Virginia.40  By  1714  he 
became  active  as  a  colonizer  himself.  Thirty  miles  above  the 
falls  of  the  Rappahannock,  on  the  Rapidan  at  Germanna,41  he 
settled  a  little  village  of  German  redemptioners  (who  in  return 
for  having  the  passage  paid  agreed  to  serve  without  wages  for 
a  term  of  years),  to  engage  in  his  iron  works,  also  to  act  as 
rangers  on  the  frontier.  From  here,  in  1716,  with  two  compa 
nies  of  rangers  and  four  Indians,  Governor  Spotswood  and  a 
band  of  Virginia  gentlemen  made  a  summer  picnic  excursion 
of  two  weeks  across  the  Blue  Ridge  into  the  Shenandoah  Val 
ley.  Sic  juvat  transcendere  monies  was  the  motto  of  these 
Knights  of  the  Golden  Horse  Shoe,  as  the  governor  dubbed 
them.  But  they  were  not  the  "  warlike  Christian  men  "  destined 
to  occupy  the  frontier. 

Spotswood's  interest  in  the  advance  along  the  Rappahannock, 
probably  accounts  for  the  fact  that  in  1720  Spotsylvania  and 

*° Spotswood,  "Letters,"  i,  p.  40. 

41  On  Germanna  see  Spotswood,  "  Letters "  (index)  ;  Fontaine's  jour 
nal  in  A.  Maury,  "Huguenot  Family"  (1853),  p.  268;  Jones,  "Present 
State  of  Virginia"  (N.  Y.,  1865),  p.  59;  Bassett,  "Writings  of  Byrd,"  p. 
356;  Va.  Magazine,  xiii,  pp.  362,  365;  vi,  p.  385;  xii,  pp.  342,  350;  xiv, 
p.  136. 

Spotswood's  interest  in  the  Indian  trade  on  the  southern  frontier  of 
Virginia  is  illustrated  in  his  fort  Christanna,  on  which  the  above  refer 
ences  afford  information. 

The  contemporaneous  account  of  Spotswood's  expedition  into  Shen 
andoah  Valley  is  Fontaine's  journey,  cited  above. 


THE  OLD  WEST  91 

Brunswick  were  organized  as  frontier  counties  of  Virginia.41 
Five  hundred  dollars  were  contributed  by  the  colony  to  the 
church,  and  a  thousand  dollars  for  arms  and  ammunition  for 
the  settlers  in  these  counties.  The  fears  of  the  French  and 
Indians  beyond  the  high  mountains,  were  alleged  as  reasons 
for  this  advance.  To  attract  settlers  to  these  new  counties, 
they  were  (1723)  exempt  from  purchasing  the  lands  under  the 
system  of  head  rights,  and  from  payment  of  quit-rents  for 
seven  years  after  1721.  The  free  grants  so  obtained  were 
not  to  exceed  a  thousand  acres.  This  was  soon  extended  to 
six  thousand  acres,  but  with  provision  requiring  the  settlement 
of  a  certain  number  of  families  upon  the  grant  within  a  certain 
time.  In  1729  Spotswood  was  ordered  by  the  Council  to  pro 
duce  "  rights "  and  pay  the  quit-rents  for  the  59,786  acres 
which  he  claimed  in  this  county. 

Other  similar  actions  by  the  Council  show  that  large  hold 
ings  were  developing  there,  also  that  the  difficulty  of  estab 
lishing  a  frontier  democracy  in  contact  with  the  area  of  expand 
ing  plantations,  was  very  real.43  By  the  time  of  the  occupa 
tion  of  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  therefore,  the  custom  was 
established  in  this  part  of  Virginia,44  of  making  grants  of  a 
thousand  acres  for  each  family  settled.  Speculative  planters, 
influential  with  the  Governor  and  Council  secured  grants  of 
many  thousand  acres,  conditioned  upon  seating  a  certain  num 
ber  of  families,  and  satisfying  the  requirements  of  planting. 
Thus  what  had  originally  been  intended  as  direct  grants  to  the 
actual  settler,  frequently  became  grants  to  great  planters  like 
Beverley,  who  promoted  the  coming  of  Scotch-Irish  and  Ger- 

42  See  the  excellent  paper  by  C.  E.  Kemper,  in  Va.  Magazine,  xii, 
on  "  Early  Westward  Movement  in  Virginia." 

43  Compare   Phillips,    "  Origin    and    Growth   of   the   Southern   Black 
Belts,"  in  Amer.  Hist.  Review,  xi,  p.  799. 

44  Va.  Magazine,  xiii,  p.  113. 


92         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

man  settlers,  or  took  advantage  of  the  natural  drift  into  the 
Valley,  to  sell  lands  in  their  grants,  as  a  rule,  reserving  quit- 
rents.  The  liberal  grants  per  family  enabled  these  speculative 
planters,  while  satisfying  the  terms  of  settlement,  to  hold  large 
portions  of  the  grant  for  themselves.  Under  the  lax  require 
ments,  and  probably  still  more  lax  enforcement,  of  the  provi 
sions  for  actual  cultivation  or  cattle-raising,45  it  was  not  diffi 
cult  to  hold  such  wild  land.  These  conditions  rendered  pos 
sible  the  extension  of  a  measure  of  aristocratic  planter  life  in 
the  course  of  time  to  the  Piedmont  and  Valley  lands  of  Vir 
ginia.  It  must  be  added,  however,  that  some  of  the  newcomers, 
both  Germans  and  Scotch-Irish,  like  the  Van  Meters,  Stover, 
and  Lewis,  also  showed  an  ability  to  act  as  promoters  in  locat 
ing  settlers  and  securing  grants  to  themselves. 

In  the  northern  part  of  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  lay  part  of 
the  estate  of  Lord  Fairfax,  some  six  million  acres  in  extent, 
which  came  to  the  family  by  dower  from  the  old  Culpeper  and 
Arlington  grant  of  Northern  Neck.  In  1748,  the  youthful 
Washington  was  surveying  this  estate  along  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Potomac,  finding  a  bed  under  the  stars  and  learning  the 
life  of  the  frontier. 

Lord  Fairfax  established  his  own  Greenway  manor,48  and 
divided  his  domain  into  other  manors,  giving  ninety-nine-year 
leases  to  settlers  already  on  the  ground  at  twenty  shillings 
annually  per  hundred  acres;  while  of  the  new-comers  he  ex 
acted  two  shillings  annual  quit-rent  for  this  amount  of  land 
in  fee  simple.  Litigation  kept  land  titles  uncertain  here,  for 
many  years.  Similarly,  Beverley's  manor,  about  Staunton, 
represented  a  grant  of  118,000  acres  to  Beverley  and  his  asso- 

45  "Revised  Code  of  Virginia"  (Richmond,  1819),  ii,  p.  339. 

*6Mag.  Amer.  Hist.,  xiii,  pp.  217,  230;  Winsor,  "Narr.  and  Crit. 
Hist,  of  America,"  v,  p.  268;  Kercheval,  "The  Valley"  (Winchester, 
Va.,  1833),  pp.  67,  209;  Va.  Magazine,  xiii,  p.  115. 


THE  OLD  WEST  93 

dates  on  condition  of  placing  the  proper  number  of  families 
on  the  tract.47  Thus  speculative  planters  on  this  frontier 
shared  in  the  movement  of  occupation  and  made  an  aristo 
cratic  element  in  the  up-country ;  but  the  increasing  proportion 
of  Scotch-Irish  immigrants,  as  well  as  German  settlers,  to 
gether  with  the  contrast  in  natural  conditions,  made  the  inte 
rior  a  different  Virginia  from  that  of  the  tidewater. 

As  settlement  ascended  the  Rappahannock,  and  emigrants 
began  to  enter  the  Valley  from  the  north,  so,  contempora 
neously,  settlement  ascended  the  James  above  the  falls,  suc 
ceeding  to  the  posts  of  the  fur-traders.48  Goochland  County 
was  set  off  in  1728,  and  the  growth  of  population  led,  as  early 
as  1729,  to  proposals  for  establishing  a  city  (Richmond)  at 
the  falls.  Along  the  upper  James,  as  on  the  Rappahannock, 
speculative  planters  bought  headrights  and  located  settlers 
and  tenants  to  hold  their  grants.49  Into  this  region  came 
natives  of  Virginia,  emigrants  from  the  British  isles,  and  scat 
tered  representatives  of  other  lands,  some  of  them  coming  up 
the  James,  others  up  the  York,  and  still  others  arriving  with 
the  southward-moving  current  along  both  sides  of  the  Blue 
Ridge. 

Before  1730  few  settlers  lived  above  the  mouth  of  the  Riv- 
anna.  In  1732  Peter  Jefferson  patented  a  thousand  acres  at 
the  eastern  opening  of  its  mountain  gap,  and  here,  under  fron 
tier  conditions,  Thomas  Jefferson  was  born  in  1743  near  his 
later  estate  of  Monticello.  About  him  were  pioneer  farmers, 
as  well  as  foresighted  engrossers  of  the  land.  In  the  main  his 
country  was  that  of  a  democratic  frontier  people  —  Scotch- 

47 "William  and  Mary  College  Quarterly"  (Williamsburg,  1895),  iii, 
p.  226.  See  Jefferson  and  Frye,  "  Map  of  Virginia,  1751,"  for  location  of 
this  and  Borden's  manor. 

« Brown,  "The  Cabells"  (Boston,  1895),  p.  53. 

49  Loc.  cit.,  pp.  57,  66. 


94         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Irish  Presbyterians,  Quakers,  Baptists,  and  other  sects,50  out  of 
sympathy  with  the  established  church  and  the  landed  gentry 
of  the  lowlands.  This  society  in  which  he  was  born,  was  to 
find  in  Jefferson  a  powerful  exponent  of  its  ideals.51  Patrick 
Henry  was  born  in  1736  above  the  falls,  not  far  from  Rich 
mond,  and  he  also  was  a  mouthpiece  of  interior  Virginia  in  the 
Revolutionary  era.  In  short,  a  society  was  already  forming 
in  the  Virginia  Piedmont  which  was  composed  of  many  sects, 
of  independent  yeomen  as  well  as  their  great  planter  leaders 
—  a  society  naturally  expansive,  seeing  its  opportunity  to  deal 
in  unoccupied  lands  along  the  frontier  which  continually 
moved  toward  the  West,  and  in  this  era  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  dominated  by  the  democratic  ideals  of  pioneers  rather 
than  by  the  aristocratic  tendencies  of  slaveholding  planters. 
As  there  were  two  New  Englands,  so  there  were  by  this  time 
two  Virginias,  and  the  uplands  belonged  with  the  Old  West. 

The  advance  across  the  fall  line  from  the  coast  was,  in  North 
Carolina,  much  slower  than  in  Virginia.  After  the  Tuscarora 
War  (1712-13)  an  extensive  region  west  from  Pamlico  Sound 
was  opened  (1724).  The  region  to  the  north,  about  the  Roa- 
noke,  had  before  this  begun  to  receive  frontier  settlers,  largely 
from  Virginia.  Their  traits  are  interestingly  portrayed  in 
Byrd's  "Dividing  Line."  By  1728  the  farthest  inhabitants 
along  the  Virginia  boundary  were  frontiersmen  about  Great 
Creek,  a  branch  of  the  Roanoke.52  The  North  Carolina  com 
missioners  desired  to  stop  running  the  line  after  going  a  hun 
dred  and  seventy  miles,  on  the  plea  that  they  were  already  fifty 
miles  beyond  the  outermost  inhabitant,  and  there  would  be  no 
need  for  an  age  or  two  to  carry  the  line  farther;  but  the  Vir- 

°°Meade,  "Old  Churches"  (Phila.,  1861),  2  vols.;  Foote,  "Sketches" 
(Phila.,  1855) ;  Brown,  "  The  Cabells,"  p.  68. 

51  Atlantic  Monthly,  vol.  xci,  pp.  83  et  seq,;  Ford,  "Writing  of 
Thomas  Jefferson"  (N.  Y.,  1892),  i,  pp.  xix  et  seq. 

B2Byrd,  "Dividing  Line"   (Richmond,  1866),  pp.  85,  271. 


THE  OLD  WEST  95 

ginia  surveyors  pointed  out  that  already  speculators  were  tak 
ing  up  the  land.  A  line  from  Weldon  to  Fayetteville  would 
roughly  mark  the  western  boundary  of  North  Carolina's  sparse 
population  of  forty  thousand  souls.53 

The  slower  advance  is  explained,  partly  because  of  the  later 
settlement  of  the  Carolinas,  partly  because  the  Indians  contin 
ued  to  be  troublesome  on  the  flanks  of  the  advancing  popula 
tion,  as  seen  in  the  Tuscarora  and  Yemassee  wars,  and  partly 
because  the  pine  barrens  running  parallel  with  the  fall  line 
made  a  zone  of  infertile  land  not  attractive  to  settlers.  The 
North  Carolina  low  country,  indeed,  had  from  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century  been  a  kind  of  southern  frontier  for  over 
flow  from  Virginia;  and  in  many  ways  was  assimilated  to  the 
type  of  the  up-country  in  its  turbulent  democracy,  its  variety 
of  sects  and  peoples,  and  its  primitive  conditions.  But  under 
the  lax  management  of  the  public  lands,  the  use  of  "blank 
patents  "  and  other  evasions  made  possible  the  development  of 
large  landholding,  side  by  side  with  headrights  to  settlers. 
Here,  as  in  Virginia,  a  great  proprietary  grant  extended  across 
the  colony  —  Lord  Granville's  proprietary  was  a  zone  embrac 
ing  the  northern  half  of  North  Carolina.  Within  the  area, 
sales  and  quit-rents  were  administered  by  the  agents  of  the 
owner,  with  the  result  that  uncertainty  and  disorder  of  an 
agrarian  nature  extended  down  to  the  Revolution.  There  were 
likewise  great  speculative  holdings,  conditioned  on  seating  a 
certain  proportion  of  settlers,  into  which  the  frontiersmen  were 
drifting.54  But  this  system  also  made  it  possible  for  agents 
of  later  migrating  congregations  to  establish  colonies  like  that 
of  the  Moravians  at  Wachovia.55  Thus,  by  the  time  settlers 

53 "  N.  C.  Colon.  Records,"  iii,  p.  xiii.  Compare  Hawks,  "  Hist,  of 
North  Carolina"  (Fayetteville,  1859),  map  of  precincts,  1663-1729. 

"Raper,  "North  Carolina"  (N.  Y.,  1904),  chap,  v;  W.  R.  Smith, 
"South  Carolina"  (N.  Y.,  1903),  pp.  48,  57. 

65Clewell,  "Wachovia"  (N.  Y.,  1902). 


96         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

came  into  the  uplands  from  the  north,  a  land  system  existed 
similar  to  that  of  Virginia.  A  common  holding  was  a  square 
mile  (640  acres),  but  in  practice  this  did  not  prevent  the  accu 
mulation  of  great  estates.56  Whereas  Virginia's  Piedmont  area 
was  to  a  large  extent  entered  by  extensions  from  the  coast, 
that  of  North  Carolina  remained  almost  untouched  by  1730.57 
The  same  is  true  of  South  Carolina.  By  1730,  settlement 
had  progressed  hardly  eighty  miles  from  the  coast,  even  in  the 
settled  area  of  the  lowlands.  The  tendency  to  engross  the  low 
lands  for  large  plantations  was  clear,  here  as  elsewhere.58  The 
surveyor-general  reports  in  1732  that  not  as  many  as  a  thou 
sand  acres  within  a  hundred  miles  of  Charleston,  or  within 
twenty  miles  of  a  river  or  navigable  creek,  were  unpossessed. 
In  1729  the  crown  ordered  eleven  townships  of  twenty  thou 
sand  acres  each  to  be  laid  out  in  rectangles,  divided  into  fifty 
acres  for  each  actual  settler  under  a  quit-rent  of  four  shillings 
a  year  for  every  hundred  acres,  or  proportionally,  to  be  paid 
after  the  first  ten  years.59  By  1732  these  townships,  designed 
to  attract  foreign  Protestants,  were  laid  out  on  the  great  rivers 
of  the  colony.  As  they  were  located  in  the  middle  region, 
east  of  the  fall  line,  among  pine  barrens,  or  in  malarial  lands 
in  the  southern  corner  of  the  colony,  they  all  proved  abortive 
as  towns,  except  Orangeburg60  on  the  North  Edisto,  where 

56  Ballagh,  in  Amer.  Hist.  Assoc.  "  Report,"  1897,  pp.  120,  121,  citing 
Bassett,  in  "Law  Quarterly  Review,"  April,  1895,  pp.  159-161. 

57  See  map  in  Hawks,  "  North  Carolina." 

88McCrady,  "South  Carolina,"  1719-1776  (N.  Y.,  1899,  pp.  149,  151; 
Smith,  "  South  Carolina,"  p.  40 ;  Ballagh,  in  Amer.  Hist.  Assoc.  "  Report," 
1897,  pp.  117-119;  Brevard,  "Digest  of  S.  C.  Laws"  (Charleston,  1857), 
i,  p.  xi. 

59  McCrady,  "South  Carolina,"  pp.  121  et  seq.;  Phillips,  "Transporta 
tion  in  the  Eastern  Cotton  Belt"  (N.  Y.,  1908),  p.  51. 

60  This  was  not  originally  provided  for  among  the  eleven  towns.    For 
its  history   see   Salley,  "  Orangeburg " —  frontier  conditions   about   1769 
are  described  on  pp.  219  et  seq.;  see  map  opposite  p.  9. 


THE  OLD  WEST  97 

German  redemptioners  made  a  settlement.  The  Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterians  who  came  to  Williamsburg,  on  Black  River, 
suffered  hardships;  as  did  the  Swiss  who,  under  the  visionary 
leadership  of  Purry,  settled  in  the  deadly  climate  of  Purrys- 
burg,  on  the  lower  Savannah.  To  Welsh  colonists  from  Penn 
sylvania  there  was  made  a  grant  —  known  as  the  "  Welsh 
tract,"  embracing  over  173,000  acres  on  the  Great  Pedee 
(Marion  County)01  under  headrights  of  fifty  acres,  also  a 
bounty  in  provisions,  tools,  and  livestock. 

These  attempts,  east  of  the  fall  line,  are  interesting  as  show 
ing  the  colonial  policy  of  marking  out  towns  (which  were  to 
be  politically-organized  parishes,  with  representation  in  the 
legislature),  and  attracting  foreigners  thereto,  prior  to  the 
coming  of  settlers  from  the  North. 

The  settlement  of  Georgia,  in  1732,  completed  the  southern 
line  of  colonization  toward  the  Piedmont.  Among  the  objects 
of  the  colony,  as  specified  in  the  charters,  were  the  relief  of 
the  poor  and  the  protection  of  the  frontiers.  To  guard  against 
the  tendency  to  engross  the  lands  in  great  estates,  already  so 
clearly  revealed  in  the  older  colonies,  the  Georgia  trustees  pro 
vided  that  the  grants  of  fifty  acres  should  not  be  alienated  or 
divided,  but  should  pass  to  the  male  heirs  and  revert  to  the 
trustees  in  case  heirs  were  lacking.  No  grant  greater  than 
five  hundred  acres  was  permitted,  and  even  this  was  made  con 
ditionally  upon  the  holder  settling  ten  colonists.  However, 
under  local  conditions  and  the  competition  and  example  of 
neighboring  colonies,  this  attempt  to  restrict  land  tenure  in 
the  interest  of  democracy  broke  down  by  1750,  and  Georgia's 
land  system  became  not  unlike  that  of  the  other  Southern 
colonies.62 

In  1734,  Salzburgers  had  been  located  above  Savannah,  and 

61  Gregg,  "  Old  Cheraws,"  p.  44. 

62  Ballagh,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  119,  120. 


08         THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Within  seven  years  some  twelve  hundred  German  Protestants 
were  dwelling  on  the  Georgia  frontier;  while  a  settlement  of 
Scotch  Highlanders  at  Darien,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Altamaha, 
protected  the  southern  frontier.  At  Augusta,  an  Indian  trad 
ing  fort  (1735),  whence  the  dealers  in  peltry  visited  the  Chero 
kee,  completed  the  familiar  picture  of  frontier  advance.63 

We  have  now  hastily  surveyed  the  movement  of  the  frontier 
of  settlement  westward  from  the  lowlands,  in  the  later  years  of 
the  seventeenth  and  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
There  is  much  that  is  common  in  the  whole  line  of  advance. 
The  original  settlers  engross  the  desirable  lands  of  the  older 
area.  Indented  servants  and  new-comers  pass  to  the  frontier 
seeking  a  place  to  locate  their  headrights,  or  plant  new  towns. 
Adventurous  and  speculative  wealthy  planters  acquire  large 
holdings  in  the  new  areas,  and  bring  over  settlers  to  satisfy  the 
requirements  of  seating  and  cultivating  their  extensive  grants, 
thus  building  up  a  yeomanry  of  small  landholders  side  by  side 
with  the  holders  of  large  estates.  The  most  far-sighted  of  the 
new-comers  follow  the  example  of  the  planters,  and  petition 
for  increasing  extensive  grants.  Meanwhile,  pioneers  like 
Abraham  Wood,  himself  once  an  indented  servant,  and  gen 
tlemen  like  Col.  William  Byrd  —  prosecuting  the  Indian  trade 
from  their  posts  at  the  "  heads  "  of  the  rivers,  and  combining 
frontier  protection,  exploring,  and  surveying  —  make  known 
the  more  distant  fertile  soils  of  the  Piedmont.  Already  in  the 
first  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  frontier  population 
tended  to  be  a  rude  democracy,  with  a  large  representation  of 
Scotch-Irish,  Germans,  Welsh,  and  Huguenot  French  settlers, 
holding  religious  faiths  unlike  that  of  the  followers  of  the 
established  church  in  the  lowlands.  The  movement  of  slaves 
into  the  region  was  unimportant,  but  not  unknown. 

63  Compare  the  description  of  Georgia  frontier  traders,  cattle  raisers, 
and  land  speculators,  about  1773,  in  Bartram,  "  Travels,"  pp.  18,  36,  308. 


THE  OLD  WEST  99 

The  Virginia  Valley  was  practically  unsettled  in  1730,  as 
was  much  of  Virginia's  Piedmont  area  and  all  the  Piedmont 
area  of  the  Carolinas.  The  significance  of  the  movement  of 
settlers  from  the  North  into  this  vacant  Valley  and  Piedmont, 
behind  the  area  occupied  by  expansion  from  the  coast  is,  that 
it  was  geographically  separated  from  the  westward  movement 
from  the  coast,  and  that  it  was  sufficient  in  volume  to  recruit 
the  democratic  forces  and  postpone  for  a  long  time  the  process 
of  social  assimilation  to  the  type  of  the  lowlands. 

As  has  been  pointed  out,  especially  in  the  Carolinas  a  belt  of 
pine  barrens,  roughly  eighty  miles  in  breadth,  ran  parallel 
with  the  fall  line  and  thus  discouraged  western  advance  across 
this  belt,  even  before  the  head  of  navigation  was  reached.  In 
Virginia,  the  Blue  Ridge  made  an  almost  equally  effective 
barrier,  walling  off  the  Shenandoah  Valley  from  the  westward 
advance.  At  the  same  time  this  valley  was  but  a  continuation 
of  the  Great  Valley,  that  ran  along  the  eastern  edge  of  the 
Alleghanies  in  southeastern  Pennsylvania,  and  included  in  its 
mountain  trough  the  Cumberland  and  Hagerstown  valleys.  In 
short,  a  broad  limestone  band  of  fertile  soil  was  stretched 
within  mountain  walls,  southerly  from  Pennsylvania  to  south 
western  Virginia;  and  here  the  watergaps  opened  the  way  to 
descend  to  the  Carolina  Piedmont.  This  whole  area,  a  kind 
of  peninsula  thrust  down  from  Pennsylvania,  was  rendered 
comparatively  inaccessible  to  the  westward  movement  from 
the  lowlands,  and  was  equally  accessible  to  the  population 
which  was  entering  Pennsylvania.64 

Thus  it  happened  that  from  about  1730  to  1760  a  generation 
of  settlers  poured  along  this  mountain  trough  into  the  southern 
uplands,  or  Piedmont,  creating  a  new  continuous  social  and 
economic  area,  which  cut  across  the  artificial  colonial  boundary 

64  See  Willis,  "  Northern  Appalachians,"  in  "  Physiography  of  the  U. 
S."  in  National  Geog.  Soc.  "Monographs"  (N.  Y.,  1895),  no.  6. 


100       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

lines,  disarranged  the  regular  extension  of  local  government 
from  the  coast  westward,  and  built  up  a  new  Pennsylvania  in 
contrast  with  the  old  Quaker  colonies,  and  a  new  South  in  con 
trast  with  the  tidewater  South.  This  New  South  composed  the 
southern  half  of  the  Old  West. 

From  its  beginning,  Pennsylvania  was  advertised  as  a  home 
for  dissenting  sects  seeking  freedom  in  the  wilderness.  But  it 
was  not  until  the  exodus  of  German  redemptioners,65  from 
about  1717,  that  the  Palatinate  and  neighboring  areas  sent  the 
great  tide  of  Germans  which  by  the  time  of  the  Revolution 
made  them  nearly  a  third  of  the  total  population  of  Pennsyl 
vania.  It  has  been  carefully  estimated  that  in  1775  over 
200,000  Germans  lived  in  the  thirteen  colonies,  chiefly  along 
the  frontier  zone  of  the  Old  West.  Of  these,  a  hundred  thou 
sand  had  their  home  in  Pennsylvania,  mainly  in  the  Great 
Valley,  in  the  region  which  is  still  so  notably  the  abode  of  the 
"  Pennsylvania  Dutch."  66 

Space  does  not  permit  us  to  describe  this  movement  of  colon 
ization.67  The  entrance  to  the  fertile  limestone  soils  of  the 
Great  Valley  of  Pennsylvania  was  easy,  in  view  of  the  low  ele 
vation  of  the  South  Mountain  ridge,  and  the  watergaps  thereto. 
The  continuation  along  the  similar  valley  to  the  south,  in 
Maryland  and  Virginia,  was  a  natural  one,  especially  as  the 
increasing  tide  of  emigrants  raised  the  price  of  lands.68  In 

85  Diffenderfer,  "  German  Immigration  into  Pennsylvania,"  in  Pa. 
German  Soc.  "  Proc.,"  v,  p.  10 ;  "  Redemptioners "  (Lancaster,  Pa., 
1900). 

96  A.  B.  Faust,  "  German  Element  in  the  United  States." 

67  See  the  bibliographies  in  Kuhns,  "  German  and  Swiss  Settlements 
of  Pennsylvania"  (N.  Y.,  1901);  Wayland,  "German  Element  of  the 
Shenandoah  Valley "  (N.  Y.,  1908)  ;  Channing,  "  United  States,"  ii,  p. 
421;  Griffin,  "List  of  Works  Relating  to  the  Germans  in  the  U.  S." 
(Library  of  Congress,  Wash.,  1904). 

68 See  in  illustration,  the  letter  in  Myers,  "Irish  Quakers"  (Swarth- 
more,  Pa.,  1902),  p.  70. 


THE  OLD  WEST  101 

1719  the  proprietor's  price  for  Pennsylvania  lands  was  ten 
pounds  per  hundred  acres,  and  two  shillings  quit-rents.  In 
1732  this  became  fifteen  and  one-half  pounds,  with  a  quit-rent 
of  a  half  penny  per  acre.69  During  the  period  1718  to  1732, 
when  the  Germans  were  coming  in  great  numbers,  the  manage 
ment  of  the  lands  fell  into  confusion,  and  many  seated  them 
selves  as  squatters,  without  title.70  This  was  a  fortunate  pos 
sibility  for  the  poor  redemptioners,  who  had  sold  their  serv 
ice  for  a  term  of  years  in  order  to  secure  their  transportation 
to  America. 

By  1726  it  was  estimated  that  there  were  100,000  squatters;71 
and  of  the  670,000  acres  occupied  between  1732  and  1740,  it 
is  estimated  that  400,000  acres  were  settled  without  grants.72 
Nevertheless  these  must  ultimately  be  paid  for,  with  interest, 
and  the  concession  of  the  right  of  preemption  to  squatters  made 
this  easier.  But  it  was  not  until  1755  that  the  governor  offered 
land  free  from  purchase,  and  this  was  to  be  taken  only  west  of 
the  Alleghanies.73 

Although  the  credit  system  relieved  the  difficulty  in  Pennsyl 
vania,  the  lands  of  that  colony  were  in  competition  with  the 
Maryland  lands,  offered  between  1717  and  1738  at  forty  shil 
lings  sterling  per  hundred  acres,  which  in  1738  was  raised  to 
five  pounds  sterling.74  At  the  same  time,  in  the  Virginia  Val 
ley,  as  will  be  recalled,  free  grants  were  being  made  of  a 
thousand  acres  per  family.  Although  large  tracts  of  the  Shen- 
andoah  Valley  had  been  granted  to  speculators  like  Beverley, 

69  Shepherd,  "  Proprietary  Government  in  Pennsylvania  "  (N.  Y.,  1896) , 
p.  34. 

70  Gordon,  "  Pennsylvania"  (Phila.,  1829),  p.  225. 

71  Shepherd,  loc,  cit.,  pp.  49-51. 

72  Ballagh,  Amer.  Hist.  Assoc.  "  Report,"  1897,  pp.  112,  113.    Compare 
Smith,  "St.  Clair  Papers"  (Cincinnati,  1882),  ii,  p.  101. 

73  Shepherd,  loc.  cit.,  p.  50. 

^Mereness,  "Maryland"  (N.  Y.,  1901),  p.  77. 


102       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Borden,  and  the  Carters,  as  well  as  to  Lord  Fairfax,  the  owners 
sold  six  or  seven  pounds  cheaper  per  hundred  acres  than  did 
the  Pennsylvania  land  office.75  Between  1726  and  1734,  there 
fore,  the  Germans  began  to  enter  this  valley,78  and  before  long 
they  extended  their  settlements  into  the  Piedmont  of  the  Caro- 
linas,77  being  recruited  in  South  Carolina  by  emigrants  com 
ing  by  way  of  Charleston  —  especially  after  Governor  Glenn's 
purchase  from  the  Cherokee  in  1755,  of  the  extreme  western 
portion  of  the  colony.  Between  1750  and  the  Revolution, 
these  settlers  in  the  Carolinas  greatly  increased  in  numbers. 

Thus  a  zone  of  almost  continuous  German  settlements  had 
been  established,  running  from  the  head  of  the  Mohawk  in 
New  York  to  the  Savannah  in  Georgia.  They  had  found  the 
best  soils,  and  they  knew  how  to  till  them  intensively  and 
thriftily,  as  attested  by  their  large,  well-filled  barns,  good 
stock,  and  big  canvas-covered  Conestoga  wagons.  They  pre 
ferred  to  dwell  in  groups,  often  of  the  same  religious  denom 
ination —  Lutherans,  Reformed,  Moravians,  Mennonites,  and 
many  lesser  sects.  The  diaries  of  Moravian  missionaries  from 
Pennsylvania,  who  visited  them,  show  how  the  parent  congre 
gations  kept  in  touch  with  their  colonies  78  and  how  intimate, 

75 "Calendar  Va.  State  Papers"  (Richmond,  1875),  i,  p.  217;  on  these 
grants  see  Kemper,  "  Early  Westward  Movement  in  Virginia "  in  Va. 
Mag.,  xii  and  xiii ;  Wayland,  "  German  Element  of  the  Shenandoah  Val 
ley,"  William  and  Mary  College  Quarterly,  iii.  The  speculators,  both 
planters  and  new-comers,  soon  made  application  for  lands  beyond  the 
Alleghanies. 

78  In  1794  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates  resolved  to  publish  the 
most  important  laws  of  the  state  in  German. 

77  See  Bernheim,  "German  Settlements  in  the  Carolinas"  (Phila., 
1872);  Clewell,  "Wachovia";  Allen,  "German  Palatines  in  N.  C." 
(Raleigh,  1905). 

78 See  Wayland,  loc.  cit.,  bibliography,  for  references;  and  especially 
Va.  Mag.,  xi,  pp.  113,  225,  370;  xii,  pp.  55,  134,  271;  "German  Amer 
ican  Annals,"  N.  S.  iii,  pp.  342,  369;  iv,  p.  16;  Clewell,  "Wachovia-r 
N.  C.  Colon.  Records,"  v,  pp.  1-14. 


THE  OLD  WEST  103 

in  general,  was  the  bond  of  connection  between  this  whole  Ger 
man  frontier  zone  and  that  of  Pennsylvania. 

Side  by  side  with  this  German  occupation  of  Valley  and 
Piedmont,  went  the  migration  of  the  Scotch-Irish.79  These 
lowland  Scots  had  been  planted  in  Ulster  early  in  the  seven 
teenth  century.  Followers  of  John  Knox,  they  had  the  con 
tentious  individualism  and  revolutionary  temper  that  seem  nat 
ural  to  Scotch  Presbyterianism.  They  were  brought  up  on  the 
Old  Testament,  and  in  the  doctrine  of  government  by  covenant 
or  compact.  In  Ireland  their  fighting  qualities  had  been 
revealed  in  the  siege  of  Londonderry,  where  their  stubborn 
resistance  balked  the  hopes  of  James  II.  However,  religious 
and  political  disabilities  were  imposed  upon  these  Ulstermen, 
which  made  them  discontented,  and  hard  times  contributed  to 
detach  them  from  their  homes.  Their  movement  to  America 
was  contemporaneous  with  the  heavy  German  migration.  By 
the  Revolution,  it  is  believed  that  a  third  of  the  population  of 
Pennsylvania  was  Scotch-Irish;  and  it  has  been  estimated, 
probably  too  liberally,  that  a  half  million  came  to  the  United 
States  between  1730  and  1770.80  Especially  after  the  Rebel 
lion  of  1745,  large  numbers  of  Highlanders  came  to  increase 
the  Scotch  blood  in  the  nation.81  Some  of  the  Scotch-Irish 
went  to  New  England.82  Given  the  cold  shoulder  by  congre 
gational  Puritans,  they  passed  to  unsettled  lands  about  Wor 
cester,  to  the  frontier  in  the  Berkshires,  and  in  southern  New 
Hampshire  at  Londonderry  —  whence  came  John  Stark,  a  fron- 

79  On  the  Scotch-Irish,  see  the  bibliography  in  Green,  "  Scotch-Irish 
in  America,"  Amer.  Antiquarian  Soc.  "Proceedings,"  April,  1895; 
Hanna,  "Scotch-Irish"  (N.  Y.,  1902),  is  a  comprehensive  presentation 
of  the  subject ;  see  also  Myers,  "  Irish  Quakers." 

80Fiske,  "Old  Virginia"  (Boston,  1897),  ii,  p.  394.  Compare  Line- 
ban,  "The  Irish  Scots  and  the  Scotch-Irish"  (Concord,  N.  H.,  1902). 

81  See  MacLean,  "Scotch  Highlanders  in  America"  (Cleveland,  1900). 

82  Hanna.  "  Scotch-Irish."  ii,  pp.  17-24. 


104       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

tier  leader  in  the  French  and  Indian  War,  and  the  hero  of 
Bennington  in  the  Revolution,  as  well  as  the  ancestors  of  Hor 
ace  Greeley  and  S.  P.  Chase.  In  New  York,  a  Scotch-Irish 
settlement  was  planted  on  the  frontier  at  Cherry  Valley.83 
Scotch  Highlanders  came  to  the  Mohawk,84  where  they  fol 
lowed  Sir  William  Johnson  and  became  Tory  raiders  in  the 
Revolution. 

But  it  was  in  Pennsylvania  that  the  center  of  Scotch-Irish 
power  lay.  "  These  bold  and  indigent  strangers,  saying  as 
their  excuse  when  challenged  for  titles  that  we  had  solicited 
for  colonists  and  they  had  come  accordingly,"  8G  and  asserting 
that  "  it  was  against  the  laws  of  God  and  nature  that  so  much 
land  should  be  idle  while  so  many  christians  wanted  it  to  work 
on  and  to  raise  their  bread,"  squatted  on  the  vacant  lands, 
especially  in  the  region  disputed  between  Pennsylvania  and 
Maryland,  and  remained  in  spite  of  efforts  to  drive  them  off. 
Finding  the  Great  Valley  in  the  hands  of  the  Germans,  they 
planted  their  own  outposts  along  the  line  of  the  Indian  trad 
ing  path  from  Lancaster  to  Bedford;  they  occupied  Cumber 
land  Valley,  and  before  1760  pressed  up  the  Juniata  somewhat 
beyond  the  narrows,  spreading  out  along  its  tributaries,  and 
by  1768  had  to  be  warned  off  from  the  Redstone  country  to 
avoid  Indian  trouble.  By  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  their  set 
tlements  made  Pittsburgh  a  center  from  which  was  to  come  a 
new  era  in  Pennsylvania  history.  It  was  the  Scotch-Irish  and 
German  fur-traders  86  whose  pack  trains  pioneered  into  the 
Ohio  Valley  in  the  days  before  the  French  and  Indian  wars. 
The  messengers  between  civilization  and  savagery  were  such 

«3HaIsey,  "Old  New  York  Frontier"  (N.  Y.,  1901). 
"MacLean,  pp.  196230. 

85  The  words  of  Logan,  Penn's  agent,  in  1724,  in  llanna,  ii,  pp.  60, 
63. 

88  Winsor,  "Mississippi  Basin"  (Boston,  1895),  pp.  238-243. 


THE  OLD  WEST  105 

men,87  as  the  Irish  Croghan,  and  the  Germans  Conrad  Weiser 
and  Christian  Post. 

Like  the  Germans,  the  Scotch-Irish  passed  into  the  Shenan- 
doah  Valley,88  and  on  to  the  uplands  of  the  South.  In  1738 
a  delegation  of  the  Philadelphia  Presbyterian  synod  was  sent 
to  the  Virginia  governor  and  received  assurances  of  security  of 
religious  freedom;  the  same  policy  was  followed  by  the  Caro- 
linas.  By  1760  a  zone  of  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterian  churches 
extended  from  the  frontiers  of  New  England  to  the  frontiers 
of  South  Carolina.  This  zone  combined  in  part  with  the  Ger 
man  zone,  but  in  general  Scotch-Irishmen  tended  to  follow  the 
valleys  farther  toward  the  mountains,  to  be  the  outer  edge  of 
this  frontier.  Along  with  this  combined  frontier  stream  were 
English,  Welsh  and  Irish  Quakers,  and  French  Huguenots.89 

Among  this  moving  mass,  as  it  passed  along  the  Valley  into 
the  Piedmont,  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  were 
Daniel  Boone,  John  Sevier,  James  Robertson,  and  the  ancestors 
of  John  C.  Calhoun,  Abraham  Lincoln,  Jefferson  Davis,  Stone 
wall  Jackson,  James  K.  Polk,  Sam  Houston,  and  Davy  Crockett, 
while  the  father  of  Andrew  Jackson  came  to  the  Carolina  Pied 
mont  at  the  same  time  from  the  coast.  Recalling  that  Thomas 
Jefferson's  home  was  on  the  frontier,  at  the  edge  of  the  Blue 
Ridge,  we  perceive  that  these  names  represent  the  militant 
expansive  movement  in  American  life.  They  foretell  the  set 
tlement  across  the  Alleghanies  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee;  the 
Louisiana  Purchase,  and  Lewis  and  Clark's  transcontinental 

87  See  Thwaites,  "Early  Western  Travels"    (Cleveland,  1904-06),  i; 
Walton,  '"Conrad  Weiser"    (Phila.,  1900);   Heckewelder,  "Narrative" 
(Phila.,  1820). 

88  Christian,  "Scotch-Irish  Settlers  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia"   (Rich 
mond,  1860). 

89  Roosevelt  gives  an  interesting  picture  of  this  society  in  his  "  Win 
ning  of  the  West"   (N.  Y.,  1889-%),  i,  chap,  v;  see  also  his  citations, 
especially    Doddridge,    "Settlements    and    Indian    Wars"    (Wellsburgh, 
W.  Va.,  1824). 


106       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

exploration;  the  conquest  of  the  Gulf  Plains  in  the  War  of 
1812-15;  the  annexation  of  Texas;  the  acquisition  of  Califor 
nia  and  the  Spanish  Southwest.  They  represent,  too,  frontier 
democracy  in  its  two  aspects  personified  in  Andrew  Jackson 
and  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  was  a  democracy  responsive  to 
leadership,  susceptible  to  waves  of  emotion,  of  a  "high  relig- 
eous  voltage  " —  quick  and  direct  in  action. 

The  volume  of  this  Northern  movement  into  the  Southern 
uplands  is  illustrated  by  the  statement  of  Governor  Tryon,  of 
North  Carolina,  that  in  the  summer  and  whiter  of  1765  more 
than  a  thousand  immigrant  wagons  passed  through  Salisbury, 
in  that  colony.80  Coming  by  families,  or  groups  of  families 
or  congregations,  they  often  drove  their  herds  with  them. 
Whereas  in  1746  scarce  a  hundred  fighting  men  were  found  in 
Orange  and  the  western  counties  of  North  Carolina,  there  were 
in  1753  fully  three  thousand,  in  addition  to  over  a  thousand 
Scotch  in  the  Cumberland ;  and  they  covered  the  province  more 
or  less  thickly,  from  Hillsboro  and  Fayetteville  to  the  moun 
tains.91  Bassett  remarks  that  the  Presbyterians  received  their 
first  ministers  from  the  synod  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania, 
and  later  on  sent  their  ministerial  students  to  Princeton  Col 
lege.  "  Indeed  it  is  likely  that  the  inhabitants  of  this  region 
knew  more  about  Philadelphia  at  that  time  than  about  Newbern 
or  Edenton."  92 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  note  briefly,  in  conclusion,  some 
of  the  results  of  the  occupation  of  this  new  frontier  during  the 
first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  —  some  of  the  consequences 
of  this  formation  of  the  Old  West. 

I.  A  fighting  frontier  had  been  created  all  along  the  line 
from  New  England  to  Georgia,  which  bore  the  brunt  of  French 

80  Bassett,  in  Amer.  Hist.  Assoc.  "  Report,"  1894,  p.  145. 
91 "  N.  C.  Colon.  Records,"  v,  pp.  xxxix,  xl ;  cf.  p.  xxi. 
92  Loc.  cit^  pp.  146,  147. 


THE  OLD  WEST  107 

and  Indian  attacks  and  gave  indispensable  service  during  the 
Revolution.  The  significance  of  this  fact  could  only  be  devel 
oped  by  an  extended  survey  of  the  scattered  border  warfare  of 
this  era.  We  should  have  to  see  Rogers  leading  his  New  Eng 
land  Rangers,  and  Washington  defending  interior  Virginia 
with  his  frontiersmen  in  their  hunting  shirts,  in  the  French  and 
Indian  War.  When  all  of  the  campaigns  about  the  region  of 
Canada,  Lake  Champlain,  and  the  Hudson,  central  New  York 
(Oriskany,  Cherry  Valley,  Sullivan's  expedition  against  the 
Iroquois),  Wyoming  Valley,  western  Pennsylvania,  the  Vir 
ginia  Valley,  and  the  back  country  of  the  South  are  considered 
as  a  whole  from  this  point  of  view,  the  meaning  of  the  Old 
West  will  become  more  apparent. 

II.  A  new  society  had  been  established,  differing  in  essen 
tials  from  the  colonial  society  of  the  coast.  It  was  a  demo 
cratic  self-sufficing,  primitive  agricultural  society,  in  which 
individualism  was  more  pronounced  than  the  community  life 
of  the  lowlands.  The  indented  servant  and  the  slave  were  not 
a  normal  part  of  its  labor  system.  It  was  engaged  in  grain 
and  cattle  raising,  not  in  producing  staples,  and  it  found  a 
partial  means  of  supplying  its  scarcity  of  specie  by  the  peltries 
which  it  shipped  to  the  coast.  But  the  hunter  folk  were  already 
pushing  farther  on;  the  cow-pens  and  the  range  were  giving 
place  to  the  small  farm,  as  in  our  own  day  they  have  done  in 
the  cattle  country.  It  was  a  region  of  hard  work  and  poverty, 
not  of  wealth  and  leisure.  Schools  and  churches  were  secured 
under  serious  difficulty,93  if  at  all;  but  in  spite  of  the  natural 

93  See  the  interesting  account  of  Rev.  Moses  Waddell's  school  in  South 
Carolina,  on  the  upper  Savannah,  where  the  students,  including  John 
C.  Calhoun,  McDuffe,  Legare,  and  Petigru,  were  educated  in  the  wilder 
ness.  They  lived  in  log  huts  in  the  woods,  furnished  their  own  sup 
plies,  or  boarded  near  by,  were  called  to  the  log  school-house  by  horn 
for  morning  prayers,  and  then  scattered  in  groups  to  the  woods  for 
study.  Hunt,  "Calhoun"  (Phila.,  1907),  p.  13. 


108       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

tendencies  of  a  frontier  life,  a  large  portion  of  the  interior 
showed  a  distinctly  religious  atmosphere. 

III.  The  Old  West  began  the  movement  of  internal  trade 
which  developed  home  markets  and  diminished  that  colonial 
dependence  on  Europe  in  industrial  matters  shown  by  the 
maritime  and  staple-raising  sections.  Not  only  did  Boston 
and  other  New  England  towns  increase  as  trading  centers 
when  the  back  country  settled  up,  but  an  even  more  significant 
interchange  occurred  along  the  Valley  and  Piedmont.  The 
German  farmers  of  the  Great  Valley  brought  their  woven  linen, 
knitted  stockings,  firkins  of  butter,  dried  apples,  grain,  etc.,  to 
Philadelphia  and  especially  to  Baltimore,  which  was  laid  out 
in  1730.  To  this  city  also  came  trade  from  the  Shenandoah 
Valley,  and  even  from  the  Piedmont  came  peltry  trains  and 
droves  of  cattle  and  hogs  to  the  same  market.9*  The  increase 
of  settlement  on  the  upper  James  resulted  in  the  establishment 
of  the  city  of  Richmond  at  the  falls  of  the  river  in  1737. 
Already  the  tobacco-planting  aristocracy  of  the  lowlands  were 
finding  rivals  in  the  grain-raising  area  of  interior  Virginia  and 
Maryland.  Charleston  prospered  as  the  up-country  of  the 
Carolinas  grew.  Writing  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  Governor  Glenn,  of  South  Carolina,  explained  the  appar 
ent  diminution  of  the  colony's  shipping  thus:  °5 

Our  trade  with  New  York  and  Philadelphia  was 
of  this  sort,  draining  us  of  all  the  little  money  and 
bills  that  we  could  gather  from  other  places,  for 
their  bread,  flour,  beer,  hams,  bacon,  and  other 
things  of  their  produce,  all  which,  except  beer,  our 
new  townships  begin  to  supply  us  with  which  are 

»*Scharf,  "Maryland"  (Baltimore,  1879),  ii,  p.  61,  and  chaps,  i  and 
xviii;  Kercheval,  "The  Valley." 
85  Weston,  "  Documents,"  p.  82. 


THE  OLD  WEST  109 

settled    with    very    industrious    and    consequently 
thriving  Germans. 

It  was  not  long  before  this  interior  trade  produced  those 
rivalries  for  commercial  ascendancy,  between  the  coastwise 
cities,  which  still  continue.  The  problem  of  internal  improve 
ments  became  a  pressing  one,  and  the  statutes  show  increasing 
provision  for  roads,  ferries,  bridges,  river  improvements,  etc.88 
The  basis  was  being  laid  for  a  national  economy,  and  at  the 
same  time  a  new  source  for  foreign  export  was  created. 

IV.  The  Old  West  raised  the  issues  of  nativism  and  a 
lower  standard  of  comfort.  In  New  England,  Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterians  had  been  frowned  upon  and  pushed  away  by 
the  Puritan  townsmen.97  In  Pennsylvania,  the  coming  of  the 
Germans  and  the  Scotch-Irish  in  such  numbers  caused  grave 
anxiety.  Indeed,  a  bill  was  passed  to  limit  the  importation 
of  the  Palatines,  but  it  was  vetoed.98  Such  astute  observers  as 
Franklin  feared  in  1753  that  Pennsylvania  would  be  unable 
to  preserve  its  language  and  that  even  its  government  would 
become  precarious."  "  I  remember,"  he  declares,  "  when 
they  modestly  declined  intermeddling  in  our  elections,  but 
now  they  come  in  droves  and  carry  all  before  them,  except  in 
one  or  two  counties;"  and  he  lamented  that  the  English  could 
not  remove  their  prejudices  by  addressing  them  in  German.1 
Dr.  Douglas  2  apprehended  that  Pennsylvania  would  "  degen 
erate  into  a  foreign  colony "  and  endanger  the  quiet  of  the 
adjacent  provinces.  Edmund  Burke,  regretting  that  the  Ger- 

96  See,  for  example,  Phillips,  "  Transportation  in  the  Eastern  Cotton 
Belt,"  pp.  21-53. 

"Hanna,  "Scotch-Irish,"  ii,  pp.  19,  22-24. 

98Cobb,  "Story  of  the  Palatines"  (Wilkes-Barre,  Pa.,  1897),  p.  300, 
citing  "  Penn.  Colon.  Records,"  iv,  pp.  225,  345. 

""Works"  (Bigelow  ed.),  ii,  pp.  296-299. 

i /*»<*.,  iii,  p.  297;  cf.  p.  221. 

2  "Summary"  (1755),  ii,  p.  326. 


110       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

mans  adhered  to  their  own  schools,  literature,  and  language, 
and  that  they  possessed  great  tracts  without  admixture  of  Eng 
lish,  feared  that  they  would  not  blend  and  become  one  people 
with  the  British  colonists,  and  that  the  colony  was  threatened 
with  the  danger  of  being  wholly  foreign.  He  also  noted  that 
**  these  foreigners  by  their  industry,  frugality,  and  a  hard  way 
of  living,  in  which  they  greatly  exceed  our  people,  have  in  a 
manner  thrust  them  out  in  several  places."  3  This  is  a  phe 
nomenon  with  which  a  succession  of  later  frontiers  has  famil 
iarized  us.  In  point  of  fact  the  "  Pennsylvania  Dutch " 
remained  through  our  history  a  very  stubborn  area  to  assim 
ilate,  with  corresponding  effect  upon  Pennsylvania  politics. 

It  should  be  noted  also  that  this  coming  of  non-English 
stock  to  the  frontier  raised  in  all  the  colonies  affected,  ques 
tions  of  naturalization  and  land  tenure  by  aliens.4 

V.  The  creation  of  this  frontier  society  —  of  which  so  large 
a  portion  differed  from  that  of  the  coast  in  language  and 
religion  as  well  as  in  economic  life,  social  structure,  and  ideals 
—  produced  an  antagonism  between  interior  and  coast,  which 
worked  itself  out  in  interesting  fashion.  In  general  this  took 
these  forms:  contests  between  the  property-holding  class  of  the 
coast  and  the  debtor  class  of  the  interior,  where  specie  was 
lacking,  and  where  paper  money  and  a  readjustment  of  the 
basis  of  taxation  were  demanded;  contests  over  defective  or 
unjust  local  government  in  the  administration  of  taxes,  fees, 
lands,  and  the  courts ;  contests  over  apportionment  in  the  legis 
lature,  whereby  the  coast  was  able  to  dominate,  even  when 
its  white  population  was  in  the  minority;  contests  to  secure 
the  complete  separation  of  church  and  state;  and,  later,  con- 

3 "European  Settlements"  (London,  1793),  ii.  p.  200  (1765);  cf. 
Franklin,  "Works"  (N.  Y.,  1905-07),  ii,  p.  221,  to  the  same  effect. 

*  Proper,  "  Colonial  Immigration  Laws,"  in  Columbia  Univ.,  "  Studies," 
xii. 


THE  OLD  WEST  111 

tests  over  slavery,  internal  improvements,  and  party  politics  in 
general.  These  contests  are  also  intimately  connected  with 
the  political  philosophy  of  the  Revolution  and  with  the  devel 
opment  of  American  democracy.  In  nearly  every  colony  prior 
to  the  Revolution,  struggles  had  been  in  progress  between  the 
party  of  privilege,  chiefly  the  Eastern  men  of  property  allied 
with  the  English  authorities,  and  the  democratic  classes,  strong 
est  in  the  West  and  the  cities. 

This  theme  deserves  more  space  than  can  here  be  allotted 
to  it;  but  a  rapid  survey  of  conditions  in  this  respect,  along 
the  whole  frontier,  will  at  least  serve  to  bring  out  the  point. 

In  New  England  as  a  whole,  the  contest  is  less  in  evidence. 
That  part  of  the  friction  elsewhere  seen  as  the  result  of  defec 
tive  local  government  in  the  back  country,  was  met  by  the 
efficiency  of  the  town  system;  but  between  the  interior  and  the 
coast  there  were  struggles  over  apportionment  and  religious 
freedom.  The  former  is  illustrated  by  the  convention  that  met 
in  Dracut,  Massachusetts,  in  1776,  to  petition  the  States  of 
Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire  to  relieve  the  financial  dis 
tress  and  unfair  legislative  representation.  Sixteen  of  the  bor 
der  towns  of  New  Hampshire  sent  delegates  to  this  convention. 
Two  years  later,  these  New  Hampshire  towns  attempted  to  join 
Vermont.6  As  a  Revolutionary  State,  Vermont  itself  was  an 
illustration  of  the  same  tendency  of  the  interior  to  break  away 
from  the  coast.  Massachusetts  in  this  period  witnessed  a  cam 
paign  between  the  paper  money  party  which  was  entrenched  in 
the  more  recently  and  thinly-settled  areas  of  the  interior  and 
west,  and  the  property-holding  classes  of  the  coast.8  The 
opposition  to  the  constitutions  of  1778  and  1780  is  tinctured 

B'Libby,  "Distribution  of  the  Vote  on  the  Federal  Constitution," 
Univ.  of  Wis.  Bulletin,  pp.  8,  9,  and  citations.  Note  especially  "  New 
Hampshire  State  Papers,"  x,  pp.  228  et  seq. 

«  Libby,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  12-14,  46,  54-57. 


112       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

with  the  same  antagonism  between  the  ideas  of  the  newer  part 
of  the  interior  and  of  the  coast.7  Shays'  Rebellion  and  the 
anti-federal  opposition  of  1787-88  found  its  stronghold  in  the 
same  interior  areas.8 

The  religious  struggles  continued  until  the  democratic  inte 
rior,  where  dissenting  sects  were  strong,  and  where  there  was 
antagonism  to  the  privileges  of  the  congregational  church, 
finally  secured  complete  disestablishment  in  New  Hampshire, 
Connecticut,  and  Massachusetts.  But  this  belongs  to  a  later 
period.9 

Pennsylvania  affords  a  clear  illustration  of  these  sectional 
antagonisms.  The  memorial  of  the  frontier  "  Paxton  Boys," 
in  1764,  demanded  a  right  to  share  in  political  privileges  with 
the  older  part  of  the  colony,  and  protested  against  the  appor 
tionment  by  which  the  counties  of  Chester,  Bucks,  and  Phila 
delphia,  together  with  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  elected  twenty- 
six  delegates,  while  the  five  frontier  counties  had  but  ten.10 
The  frontier  complained  against  the  failure  of  the  dominant 
Quaker  party  of  the  coast  to  protect  the  interior  against  the 
Indians.11  The  three  old  wealthy  counties  under  Quaker  rule 
feared  the  growth  of  the  West,  therefore  made  few  new  coun 
ties,  and  carefully  restricted  the  representation  in  each  to  pre 
serve  the  majority  in  the  old  section.  At  the  same  time,  by  a 
property  qualification  they  met  the  danger  of  the  democratic 
city  population.  Among  the  points  of  grievance  in  this  colony, 

7  Farrand,  in  Yale  Review,  May,  1908,  p.  52  and  citation. 

8  Libby,  loc.  tit. 

9  See  Turner,  "Rise  of  the  New  West"   (Amer.  Nation  series,  N.  Y., 
1906),  pp.  16  18. 

10Parkman,  "  Pontiac  "  (Boston,  1851),  ii,  p.  352. 

11  Shepherd,  "Proprietary  Government  in  Pennsylvania,"  in  Columbia 
Univ.  Studies,  vi,  pp.  546  et  seq.  Compare  Watson,  "  Annals,"  ii,  p. 
259;  Green,  "Provincial  America"  (Amer.  Nation  series,  N.  Y.,  1905), 
p.  234. 


THE  OLD  WEST  113 

in  addition  to  apportionment  and  representation,  was  the  diffi 
culty  of  access  to  the  county  seat,  owing  to  the  size  of  the  back 
counties.  Dr.  Lincoln  has  well  set  forth  the  struggle  of  the 
back  country,  culminating  in  its  triumph  in  the  constitutional 
convention  of  1776,  which  was  chiefly  the  work  of  the  Presby 
terian  counties.12  Indeed,  there  were  two  revolutions  in  Penn 
sylvania,  which  went  on  side  by  side:  one  a  revolt  against  the 
coastal  property-holding  classes,  the  old  dominant  Quaker 
party,  and  the  other  a  revolt  against  Great  Britain,  which  was 
in  this  colony  made  possible  only  by  the  triumph  of  the 
interior. 

In  Virginia,  as  early  as  1710,  Governor  Spotswood  had  com 
plained  that  the  old  counties  remained  small  while  the  new 
ones  were  sometimes  ninety  miles  long,  the  inhabitants  being 
obliged  to  travel  thirty  or  forty  miles  to  their  own  court-house. 
Some  of  the  counties  had  1,700  tithables,  while  others  only  a 
dozen  miles  square  had  500.  Justices  of  the  peace  disliked  to 
ride  forty  or  fifty  miles  to  their  monthly  courts.  Likewise 
there  was  disparity  in  the  size  of  parishes  —  for  example,  that 
of  Varina,  on  the  upper  James,  had  nine  hundred  tithables, 
many  of  whom  lived  fifty  miles  from  their  church.  But  the 
vestry  refused  to  allow  the  remote  parishioners  to  separate, 
because  it  would  increase  the  parish  levy  of  those  that 
remained.  He  feared  lest  this  would  afford  "  opportunity  to 
Sectarys  to  establish  their  opinions  among  'em,  and  thereby 
shake  that  happy  establishment  of  the  Church  of  England 
which  this  colony  enjoys  with  less  mixture  of  Dissenters  than 
any  other  of  her  Maj 'tie's  plantations,  and  when  once  Schism 
has  crept  into  the  Church,  it  will  soon  create  faction  in  the 
Civil  Government." 

12  Lincoln,  "  Revolutionary  Movement  in  Pennsylvania "  (Boston, 
1901)  ;  McMaster  and  Stone,  "  Pennsylvania  and  the  Federal  Constitu 
tion  "  (Lancaster,  1888). 


114       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

That  Spotswood's  fears  were  well  founded,  we  have  already 
seen.  As  the  sectaries  of  the  back  country  increased,  dissat 
isfaction  with  the  established  church  grew.  After  the  Revo 
lution  came,  Jefferson,  with  the  back  country  behind  him, 
was  able  finally  to  destroy  the  establishment,  and  to  break 
down  the  system  of  entails  and  primogeniture  behind  which 
the  tobacco-planting  aristocracy  of  the  coast  was  entrenched. 
The  desire  of  Jefferson  to  see  slavery  gradually  abolished 
and  popular  education  provided,  is  a  further  illustration  of 
the  attitude  of  the  interior.  In  short,  Jeffersonian  democ 
racy,  with  its  idea  of  separation  of  church  and  state,  its 
wish  to  popularize  education,  and  its  dislike  for  special  priv 
ilege,  was  deeply  affected  by  the  Western  society  of  the  Old 
Dominion. 

The  Virginian  reform  movement,  however,  was  unable  to 
redress  the  grievance  of  unequal  apportionment.  In  1780 
Jefferson  pointed  out  that  the  practice  of  allowing  each  county 
an  equal  representation  in  the  legislature  gave  control  to  the 
numerous  small  counties  of  the  tidewater,  while  the  large  popu 
lous  counties  of  the  up-country  suffered.  "  Thus,"  he  wrote, 
"  the  19,000  men  below  the  falls  give  law  to  more  than  30,000 
living  in  other  parts  of  the  state,  and  appoint  all  their  chief 
officers,  executive  and  judiciary. "  13  This  led  to  a  long  strug 
gle  between  coast  and  interior,  terminated  only  when  the  slave 
population  passed  across  the  fall  line,  and  more  nearly  assim 
ilated  coast  and  up-country.  In  the  mountain  areas  which  did 
not  undergo  this  change,  the  independent  state  of  West  Virginia 
remains  as  a  monument  of  the  contest.  In  the  convention  of 
1829-30,  the  whole  philosophy  of  representation  was  discussed, 
and  the  coast  defended  its  control  as  necessary  to  protect  prop- 

18 "  Notes  on  Virginia."  See  his  table  of  apportionment  in  Ford, 
"Writings  of  Thomas  Jefferson,"  iii,  p.  222. 


THE  OLD  WEST  115 

erty  from  the  assaults  of  a  numerical  majority.     They  feared 
that  the  interior  would  tax  their  slaves  in  order  to  secure  funds 
for  internal  improvements. 
As  Doddridge  put  the  case :  " 

The  principle  is  that  the  owners  of  slave  prop 
erty  must  be  possessed  of  all  the  powers  of  govern 
ment,  however  small  their  own  numbers  may  be, 
to  secure  that  property  from  the  rapacity  of  an 
overgrown  majority  of  white  men.  This  prin 
ciple  admits  of  no  relaxation,  because  the  weaker 
the  minority  becomes,  the  greater  will  their  need 
for  power  be  according  to  their  own  doctrines. 

Leigh  of  Chesterfield  county  declared: 15 

It  is  remarkable  —  I  mention  it  for  the  curiosity 
of  the  fact  —  that  if  any  evil,  physical  or  moral, 
arise  in  any  of  the  states  south  of  us,  it  never 
takes  a  northerly  direction,  or  taints  the  Southern 
breeze;  whereas,  if  any  plague  originate  in  the 
North,  it  is  sure  to  spread  to  the  South  and  to 
invade  us  sooner  or  later ;  the  influenza  —  the 
smallpox  —  the  varioloid  —  the  Hessian  fly  —  the 
Circuit  Court  system  —  Universal  Suffrage  —  all 
come  from  the  North,  and  they  always  cross  above 
the  falls  of  the  great  rivers;  below,  it  seems,  the 
broad  expanse  of  waters  interposing,  effectually 
arrests  their  progress. 

""Debates  of  the  Virginia  State  Convention,  1829-1830"  (Richmond, 
1854),  p.  87.  These  debates  constitute  a  mine  of  material  on  the  diffi 
culty  of  reconciling  the  political  philosophy  of  the  Revolution  with  the 
protection  of  the  property,  including  slaves,  of  the  lowland  planters. 

15  Loc.  cit.,  p.  407.    The  italics  are  mine. 


116       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Nothing  could  more  clearly  bring  out  the  sense  of  contrast 
between  upland  and  lowland  Virginia,  and  the  continued  inti 
macy  of  the  bond  of  connection  between  the  North  and  its 
Valley  and  Piedmont  colonies,  than  this  unconscious  testimony. 

In  North  and  South  Carolina  the  upland  South,  beyond  the 
pine  barrens  and  the  fall  line,  had  similar  grievances  against 
the  coast;  but  as  the  zone  of  separation  was  more  strongly 
marked,  the  grievances  were  more  acute.  The  tide  of  back 
woods  settlement  flowing  down  the  Piedmont  from  the  north, 
had  cut  across  the  lines  of  local  government  and  disarranged 
the  regular  course  of  development  of  the  colonies  from  the 
seacoast.18  Under  the  common  practice,  large  counties  in 
North  Carolina  and  parishes  in  South  Carolina  had  been  pro 
jected  into  the  unoccupied  interior  from  the  older  settlements 
along  their  eastern  edge. 

But  the  Piedmont  settlers  brought  their  own  social  order, 
and  could  not  be  well  governed  by  the  older  planters  living 
far  away  toward  the  seaboard.  This  may  be  illustrated 
by  conditions  in  South  Carolina.  The  general  court  in 
Charleston  had  absorbed  county  and  precinct  courts,  except 
the  minor  jurisdiction  of  justices  of  the  peace.  This  was  well 
enough  for  the  great  planters  who  made  their  regular  residence 
there  for  a  part  of  each  year;  but  it  was  a  source  of  oppression 
to  the  up-country  settlers,  remote  from  the  court.  The  diffi 
culty  of  bringing  witnesses,  the  delay  of  the  law,  and  the 
costs  all  resulted  in  the  escape  of  criminals  as  well  as  in  the 
immunity  of  reckless  debtors.  The  extortions  of  officials,  and 
their  occasional  collusion  with  horse  and  cattle  thieves,  and 
the  lack  of  regular  administration  of  the  law,  led  the  South 
Carolina  up-country  men  to  take  affairs  in  their  own  hands, 
and  in  1764  to  establish  associations  to  administer  lynch  law 
under  the  name  of  "  Regulators."  The  "  Scovillites,"  or  gov- 

i«  McCrady,  "  South  Carolina,  1719-1776,"  p.  623. 


THE  OLD  WEST  117 

ernment  party,  and  the  Regulators  met  in  arms  on  the  Saluda 
in  1769,  but  hostilities  were  averted  and  remedial  measures 
passed,  which  alleviated  the  difficulty  until  the  Revolution.17 
There  still  remained,  however,  the  grievance  of  unjust  legis 
lative  representation.18  Calhoun  stated  the  condition  in  these 
words: 

The  upper  country  had  no  representation  in  the 
government  and  no  political  existence  as  a  con 
stituent  portion  of  the  state  until  a  period  near 
the  commencement  of  the  revolution.  Indeed,  dur 
ing  the  revolution,  and  until  the  formation  of  the 
present  constitution,  in  1790,  its  political  weight 
was  scarcely  felt  in  the  government.  Even  then 
although  it  had  become  the  most  populous  sec 
tion,  power  was  so  distributed  under  the  consti 
tution  as  to  leave  it  in  a  minority  in  every  depart 
ment  of  government. 

Even  in  1794  it  was  claimed  by  the  up-country  leaders  that 
four-fifths  of  the  people  were  governed  by  one-fifth.  Nor  was 
the  difficulty  met  until  the  constitutional  amendment  of  1808, 
the  effect  of  which  was  to  give  the  control  of  the  senate  to  the 
lower  section  and  of  the  house  of  representatives  to  the  upper 
section,  thus  providing  a  mutual  veto.19  This  South  Carolina 
experience  furnished  the  historical  basis  for  Calhoun's  argu 
ment  for  nullification,  and  for  the  political  philosophy  under- 

17  Brevard,  "  Digest  of  S.  G  Laws,"  i,  pp.  xxiv,  253 ;  McCrady, 
"  South  Carolina,  1719-1776,"  p.  637 ;  Schaper,  "  Sectionalism  in  South 
Carolina,"  in  Amer.  Hist.  Assoc.  "Report,"  1900,  i,  pp.  334-338. 

"Schaper,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  338,  339;  Calhoun,  "Works"  (N.  Y.,  1851- 
59),  i,  p.  402;  Columbia  (S.  C.)  Gazette,  Aug.  1,  1794;  Ramsay,  "South 
Carolina,"  pp.  64-66,  195,  217;  Elliot,  "Debates,"  iv,  pp.  288,  289,  296- 
299,  305,  309,  312. 

19  Schaper,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  440-437  et  seq. 


118       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

lying  his  theory  of  the  "  concurrent  majority." 20  This  adjust 
ment  was  effected,  however,  only  after  the  advance  of  the  black 
belt  toward  the  interior  had  assimilated  portions  of  the  Pied 
mont  to  lowland  ideals. 

When  we  turn  to  North  Carolina's  upper  country  we  find 
the  familiar  story,  but  with  a  more  tragic  ending.  The  local 
officials  owed  their  selection  to  the  governor  and  the  council 
whom  he  appointed.  Thus  power  was  all  concentrated  in  the 
official  "  ring  "  of  the  lowland  area.  The  men  of  the  interior 
resented  the  extortionate  fees  and  the  poll  tax,  which  bore  with 
unequal  weight  upon  the  poor  settlers  of  the  back  country. 
This  tax  had  been  continued  after  sufficient  funds  had  been 
collected  to  extinguish  the  debt  for  which  it  was  originally 
levied,  but  venal  sheriffs  had  failed  to  pay  it  into  the  treasury. 
A  report  of  1770  showed  at  least  one  defaulting  sheriff  in 
every  county  of  the  province.21  This  tax,  which  was  almost 
the  sole  tax  of  the  colony,  was  to  be  collected  in  specie,  for 
the  warehouse  system,  by  which  staples  might  be  accepted, 
while  familiar  on  the  coast,  did  not  apply  to  the  interior. 
The  specie  was  exceedingly  difficult  to  obtain;  in  lack  of  it, 
the  farmer  saw  the  sheriff,  who  owed  his  appointment  to  the 
dominant  lowland  planters,  sell  the  lands  of  the  delinquent 
to  his  speculative  friends.  Lawyers  and  court  fees  followed. 

In  short,  the  interior  felt  that  it  was  being  exploited.22  and 
it  had  no  redress,  for  the  legislature  was  so  apportioned  that 

2°  Turner,  "  Rise  of  the  New  West,"  pp.  50-52,  331 ;  Calhoun,  "  Works," 
i,  pp.  400-405. 

ai "  N  .C.  Colon.  Records,"  vii,  pp.  xiv-xvii. 

22  See  Bassett,  **  Regulators  of  N.  C."  in  Amer.  Hist.  Assoc.  "  Report," 
1894,  pp.  141  (bibliog.)  et  seq.;  "N.  C.  Colon.  Records,"  pp.  vii-x 
(Saunder's  introductions  are  valuable);  Caruthers,  "David  Caldwell" 
(Greensborough,  N.  C.,  1842);  Waddell,  "Colonial  Officer"  (Raleigh, 
1890) ;  M.  DeL.  Haywood,  "Governor  William  Tryon"  (Raleigh,  N.  C, 
1903);  Clewell,  "Wachovia,"  chap,  x;  W.  E.  Fitch,  "Some  Neglected 
History  of  N.  C."  (N.  Y.,  1905) ;  L.  A.  McCorkle  and  F.  Nash,  in  "N. 


THE  OLD  WEST  119 

all  power  rested  in  the  old  lowland  region.  Efforts  to  secure 
paper  money  failed  by  reason  of  the  governor's  opposition 
under  instructions  from  the  crown,  and  the  currency  was  con 
tracting  at  the  very  time  when  population  was  rapidly  increas 
ing  in  the  interior.23  As  in  New  England,  in  the  days  of 
Shays'  Rebellion,  violent  prejudice  existed  against  the  judi 
ciary  and  the  lawyers,  and  it  must,  of  course,  be  understood 
that  the  movement  was  not  free  from  frontier  dislike  of  taxa 
tion  and  the  restraints  of  law  and  order  in  general.  In  1766 
and  1768,  meetings  were  held  in  the  upper  counties  to  organ 
ize  the  opposition,  and  an  "  association  " 24  was  formed,  the 
members  of  which  pledged  themselves  to  pay  no  more  taxes 
or  fees  until  they  satisfied  themselves  that  these  were  agreeable 
to  law. 

The  Regulators,  as  they  called  themselves,  assembled  in 
the  autumn  of  1768  to  the  number  of  nearly  four  thousand,  and 
tried  to  secure  terms  of  adjustment.  In  1770  the  court-house 
at  Hillsboro  was  broken  into  by  a  mob.  The  assembly  passed 
some  measures  designed  to  conciliate  the  back  country;  but 
before  they  became  operative,  Governor  Tryon's  militia,  about 
twelve  hundred  men,  largely  from  the  lowlands,  and  led  by  the 
gentry  whose  privileges  were  involved,  met  the  motley  army  of 
the  Regulators,  who  numbered  about  two  thousand,  in  the 
battle  of  the  Alamance  (May,  1771).  Many  were  killed  and 
wounded,  the  Regulators  dispersed,  and  over  six  thousand  men 
came  into  camp  and  took  the  oath  of  submission  to  the  colonial 
authorities.  The  battle  was  not  the  first  battle  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  as  it  has  been  sometimes  called,  for  it  had  little  or  no 

C.  Booklet*'  (Raleigh,  1901-07),  iii;  Wheeler,  "North  Carolina,"  ii,  pp. 
301  et  seq. ;  Cutter,  "  Lynch  Law,"  chap.  ii.  and  iii. 

23  Bassett,  loc.  cit.,  p.  152. 

24  Wheeler,  "North  Carolina,"  ii,  pp.  301-306;  "N.  C.  Colon.  Records," 
vii,  pp.  251,  699. 


120       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

relation  to  the  stamp  act;  and  many  of  the  frontiersmen 
involved,  later  refused  to  fight  against  England  because  of 
the  very  hatred  which  had  been  inspired  for  the  lowland  Revo 
lutionary  leaders  in  this  battle  of  the  Alamance.  The  interior 
of  the  Carolinas  was  a  region  where  neighbors,  during  the 
Revolution,  engaged  in  internecine  conflicts  of  Tories  against 
Whigs. 

But  in  the  sense  that  the  battle  of  Alamance  was  a  conflict 
against  privilege,  and  for  equality  of  political  rights  and  power, 
it  was  indeed  a  preliminary  battle  of  the  Revolution,  although 
fought  against  many  of  the  very  men  who  later  professed 
Revolutionary  doctrines  in  North  Carolina.  The  need  of 
recognizing  the  importance  of  the  interior  led  to  concessions 
in  the  convention  of  1776  in  that  state.  "  Of  the  forty-four 
sections  of  the  constitution,  thirteen  are  embodiments  of 
reforms  sought  by  the  Regulators."  25  But  it  was  in  this  period 
that  hundreds  of  North  Carolina  backwoodsmen  crossed  the 
mountains  to  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  many  of  them  coming 
from  the  heart  of  the  Regulator  region.  They  used  the  device 
of  "  associations  "  to  provide  for  government  in  their  commu 
nities.26 

In  the  matter  of  apportionment,  North  Carolina  showed  the 
same  lodgment  of  power  in  the  hands  of  the  coast,  even  after 
population  preponderated  in  the  Piedmont.27 

It  is  needless  to  comment  on  the  uniformity  of  the  evidence 
which  has  been  adduced,  to  show  that  the  Old  West,  the  inte 
rior  region  from  New  England  to  Georgia,  had  a  common 
grievance  against  the  coast;  that  it  was  deprived  throughout 
most  of  the  region  of  its  due  share  of  representation,  and  neg 
lected  and  oppressed  in  local  government  in  large  portions  of 

25  "  N.  C.  Colon.  Records,"  viii.  p.  xix. 

26  Turner,  in  Amer.  Hist.  Review,  i,  p.  76. 

27  "  N.  C  Colon.  Records,"  vii,  pp.  xiv-xxiv. 


THE  OLD  WEST  121 

the  section.  The  familiar  struggle  of  West  against  East,  of 
democracy  against  privileged  classes,  was  exhibited  along  the 
entire  line.  The  phenomenon  must  be  considered  as  a  unit, 
not  in  the  fragments  of  state  histories.  It  was  a  struggle  of 
interior  against  coast. 

VI.  Perhaps  the  most  noteworthy  Western  activity  in  the 
Revolutionary  era,  aside  from  the  aspects  already  mentioned, 
was  in  the  part  which  the  multitude  of  sects  in  the  Old  West 
played  in  securing  the  great  contribution  which  the  United 
States  made  to  civilization  by  providing  for  complete  religious 
liberty,  a  secular  state  with  free  churches.     Particularly  the 
Revolutionary    constitutions    of    Pennsylvania    and    Virginia, 
under  the  influence  of  the  back  country,  insured  religious  free 
dom.     The  effects  of  the  North  Carolina  upland  area  to  secure 
a  similar  result  were  noteworthy,  though  for  the  time  ineffec 
tive.28 

VII.  As  population  increased  in  these  years,  the  coast  grad 
ually  yielded  to  the  up-country's  demands.     This  may  be  illus 
trated  by  the  transfer  of  the  capitals  from  the  lowlands  to  the 
fall  line  and  Valley.     In  1779,  Virginia  changed  her  seat  of 
government  from  Williamsburg  to  Richmond;  in  1790,  South 
Carolina,  from  Charleston  to  Columbia;  in  1791,  North  Caro 
lina,  from  Edenton  to  Raleigh;  in  1797,  New  York,  from  New 
York  City  to  Albany;  in  1799,  Pennsylvania,  from  Philadel 
phia  to  Lancaster. 

VIII.  The  democratic  aspect  of  the  new  constitutions  was 
also  influenced  by  the  frontier  as  well  as  by  the  prevalent  Revo 
lutionary  philosophy;  and  the  demands  for  paper  money,  stay 

28  Weeks,  "Church  and  State  in  North  Carolina"  (Baltimore,  1893); 
"  N.  C.  Colon.  Records,"  x,  p.  870 ;  Curry,  "  Establishment  and  Dises 
tablishment "  (Phila.,  1889);  C.  F.  James,  "Documentary  History  of 
the  Struggle  for  Religious  Liberty  in  Virginia"  (Lynchburg,  Va.,  1900)  ; 
Semple,  "The  Virginia  Baptists"  (Richmond,  1810)  ;  Amer.  Hist.  Assoc. 
"  Papers,"  ii,  p.  21 ;  iii,  pp.  205,  213. 


122       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

and  tender  laws,  etc.,  of  this  period  were  strongest  in  the  inte 
rior.  It  was  this  region  that  supported  Shays'  Rebellion;  it 
was  (with  some  important  exceptions)  the  same  area  that  re 
sisted  the  ratification  of  the  federal  constitution,  fearful  of  a 
stronger  government  and  of  the  loss  of  paper  money. 

IX.  The  interior  later  showed  its  opposition  to  the  coast  by 
the  persistent  contest  against  slavery,  carried  on  in  the  up-coun 
try  of  Virginia,  and  North  and  South  Carolina.     Until  the 
decade  1830-40,  it  was  not  certain  that  both   Virginia  and 
North  Carolina  would  not  find  some  means  of  gradual  aboli 
tion.     The  same  influence  accounts  for  much  of  the  exodus  of 
the  Piedmont  pioneers  into  Indiana  and  Illinois,  in  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century.29 

X.  These  were  the  regions,  also,  in  which  were  developed 
the  desire  of  the  pioneers  who  crossed  the  mountains,  and  set 
tled  on  the  "  Western  waters,"  to  establish  new  States  free  from 
control  by  the  lowlands,  owning  their  own  lands,  able  to  deter 
mine  their  own  currency,  and  in  general  to  govern  themselves 
in  accordance  with  the  ideals  of  the  Old  West.     They  were 
ready  also,   if  need  be,  to   become  independent   of  the  Old 
Thirteen.     Vermont  must  be  considered  in  this  aspect,  as  well 
as  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.30 

XL  The  land  system  of  the  Old  West  furnished  precedents 
which  developed  into  the  land  system  of  the  trans-Alleghany 
West.31  The  squatters  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  Carolinas 

29  See  Ballagh,  "  Slavery  in  Virginia,"  Johns  Hopkins  Univ.  "  Studies," 
extra,  xxiv;  Bassett,  "Slavery  and  Servitude  in  the  Colony  of  North 
Carolina,"  Id.,  xiv,  pp.  169-254;  Bassett,  "Slavery  in  the  State  of  North 
Carolina,"  Id.,  xvii ;  Bassett,  "  Antislavery  Leaders  in  North  Carolina," 
Id.,  xvi ;  Weeks,  "  Southern  Quakers,"  Id.,  xv,  extra ;  Schaper,  "  Sec 
tionalism  in  South  Carolina,"  Amer.  Hist.  Assoc.  "  Report,"  1900 ; 
Turner,  "  Rise  of  the  New  West,"  pp.  54-56,  76-78,  80,  90,  150-152. 

80  See  F.  J.  Turner,  "  State-Making  in  the  West  During  the  Revolu 
tionary  Era,"  in  American  Historical  Review,  i,  p.  70. 

31Hening,  x,  p.  35;  "Public  Acts  of  N.  C,"  i,  pp.  204,  306;  "Revised 


THE  OLD  WEST  123 

found  it  easy  to  repeat  the  operation  on  another  frontier.  Pre 
emption  laws  became  established  features.  The  Revolution 
gave  opportunity  to  confiscate  the  claims  of  Lord  Fairfax, 
Lord  Granville,  and  McCulloh  to  their  vast  estates,  as  well  as 
the  remaining  lands  of  the  Pennsylvania  proprietors.  The  640 
acre  (or  one  square  mile)  unit  of  North  Carolina  for  pre 
emptions,  and  frontier  land  bounties,  became  the  area  awarded 
to  frontier  stations  by  Virginia  in  1779,  and  the  "  section  "  of 
the  later  federal  land  system.  The  Virginia  preemption  right 
of  four  hundred  acres  on  the  Western  waters,  or  a  thousand 
for  those  who  came  prior  to  1778,  was,  in  substance,  the  con 
tinuation  of  a  system  familiar  in  the  Old  West. 

The  grants  to  Beverley,  of  over  a  hundred  thousand  acres  in 
the  Valley,  conditioned  on  seating  a  family  for  every  thousand 
acres,  and  the  similar  grants  to  Borden,  Carter,  and  Lewis, 
were  followed  by  the  great  grant  to  the  Ohio  Company.  This 
company,  including  leading  Virginia  planters  and  some  fron 
tiersmen,  asked  in  1749  for  two  hundred  thousand  acres  on 
the  upper  Ohio,  conditioned  on  seating  a  hundred  families  in 
seven  years,  and  for  an  additional  grant  of  three  hundred 
thousand  acres  after  this  should  be  accomplished.  It  was  pro 
posed  to  settle  Germans  on  these  lands. 

The  Loyal  Land  Company,  by  order  of  the  Virginia  council 
(1749),  was  authorized  to  take  up  eight  hundred  thousand 
acres  west  and  north  of  the  southern  boundary  of  Virginia,  on 
condition  of  purchasing  "  rights  "  for  the  amount  within  four 
years.  The  company  sold  many  tracts  for  £3  per  hundred 
acres  to  settlers,  but  finally  lost  its  claim.  The  Mississippi 
Company,  including  in  its  membership  the  Lees,  Washingtons, 
and  other  great  Virginia  planters,  applied  for  two  and  one-half 
million  acres  in  the  West  in  1769.  Similar  land  companies 

Code  of  Va.,  1819,"  ii,  p.  357;  Roosevelt,  "Winning  of  the  West,"  i,  p. 
261;  ii,  pp.  92,  220. 


124       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  New  England  origin,  like  the  Susquehanna  Company  and 
Lyman's  Mississippi  Company,  exhibit  the  same  tendency  of 
the  Old  West  on  the  northern  side.  New  England's  Ohio  Com 
pany  of  Associates,  which  settled  Marietta,  had  striking  resem 
blances  to  town  proprietors. 

These  were  only  the  most  noteworthy  of  many  companies  of 
this  period,  and  it  is  evident  that  they  were  a  natural  outgrowth 
of  speculations  in  the  Old  West.  Washington,  securing  mili 
tary  bounty  land  claims  of  soldiers  of  the  French  and  Indian 
War,  and  selecting  lands  in  West  Virginia  until  he  controlled 
over  seventy  thousand  acres  for  speculation,  is  an  excellent 
illustration  of  the  tendency.  He  also  thought  of  colonizing 
German  Palatines  upon  his  lands.  The  formation  of  the 
Transylvania  and  Vandalia  companies  were  natural  develop 
ments  on  a  still  vaster  scale.32 

XII.  The  final  phase  of  the  Old  West,  which  I  wish  merely 
to  mention,  in  conclusion,  is  its  colonization  of  areas  beyond  the 
mountains.  The  essential  unity  of  the  movement  is  brought 
out  by  a  study  of  how  New  England's  Old  West  settled  northern 
Maine,  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont,  the  Adirondacks,  central 
and  Western  New  York,  the  Wyoming  Valley  (once  organized 
as  a  part  of  Litchfield,  Connecticut),  the  Ohio  Company's 
region  about  Marietta,  and  Connecticut's  Western  Reserve  on 
the  shores  of  Lake  Erie;  and  how  the  pioneers  of  the  Great 
Valley  and  the  Piedmont  region  of  the  South  crossed  the  Alle- 
ghanies  and  settled  on  the  Western  Waters.  Daniel  Boone, 
going  from  his  Pennsylvania  home  to  the  Yadkin,  and  from 
the  Yadkin  to  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  took  part  in  the  whole 
process,  and  later  in  its  continuation  into  Missouri.33  The 

32Alden,  "New  Governments  West  of  the  Alleghanies"  (Madison, 
1897),  gives  an  account  of  these  colonies.  [See  the  more  recent  work  by 
C.  W.  Alvord,  "The  Mississippi  Valley  in  British  Politics,  1763-1774" 
(1917).] 

"Thwaites,  "Daniel  Boone"   (N.  Y.,  1902);   [A.  Henderson,  "Con- 


THE  OLD  WEST  125 

social  conditions  and  ideals  of  the  Old  West  powerfully  shaped 
those  of  the  trans-Alleghany  West. 

The  important  contrast  between  the  spirit  of  individual  col 
onization,  resentful  of  control,  which  the  Southern  frontiersmen 
showed,  and  the  spirit  of  community  colonization  and  control 
to  which  the  New  England  pioneers  inclined,  left  deep  traces 
on  the  later  history  of  the  West.3*  The  Old  West  diminished 
the  importance  of  the  town  as  a  colonizing  unit,  even  in  New 
England.  In  the  Southern  area,  efforts  to  legislate  towns  into 
existence,  as  in  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  failed. 
They  faded  away  before  wilderness  conditions.  But  in  gen 
eral,  the  Northern  stream  of  migration  was  communal,  and 
the  Southern  individual.  The  difference  which  existed  between 
that  portion  of  the  Old  West  which  was  formed  by  the  north 
ward  colonization,  chiefly  of  the  New  England  Plateau  (includ 
ing  New  York),  and  that  portion  formed  by  the  southward 
colonization  of  the  Virginia  Valley  and  the  Southern  Piedmont 
was  reflected  in  the  history  of  the  Middle  West  and  the  Missis 
sippi  Valley.35 

quest  of  the  Old  Southwest"   (N.  Y.,  1920),  brings  out  the  important 
share  of  up-country  men  of  means  in  promoting  colonization]. 

34  Turner,  in   "  Alumni   Quarterly  of  the  University  of  Illinois,"  ii, 
13S-136. 

35  [It  has  seemed  best  in  this  volume  not  to  attempt  to  deal  with  the 
French  frontier  or  the  Spanish-American  frontier.    Besides  the  works 
of  Parkman,  a  multitude  of  monographs  have  appeared  in  recent  years 
which  set  the  French  frontier  in  new  light;  and  for  the  Spanish  fron 
tier  in  both  the  Southwest  and  California  much  new  information  has 
been    secured,    and    illuminating    interpretations    made    by    Professors 
H.   E.  Bolton,  I.  J.  Cox,  Chapman,  Father  Engelhart,  and  other  Cali 
fornia   and   Texas  investigators,   although  the  works  of  Hubert  Howe 
Bancroft  remain  a  useful  mine  of  material.    There  was,  of  course,  a 
contemporaneous  Old  West  on  both  the  French  and  the  Spanish  fron 
tiers.     The   formation,   approach   and   ultimate  collision  and   interming 
ling  of  these  contrasting  types  of  frontiers  are  worthy  of  a  special  study.] 


IV 

THE  MIDDLE  WEST* 

American  sectional  nomenclature  is  still  confused.  Once 
"  the  West "  described  the  whole  region  beyond  the  Alle- 
ghanies;  but  the  term  has  hopelessly  lost  its  definiteness.  The 
rapidity  of  the  spread  of  settlement  has  broken  down  old 
usage,  and  as  yet  no  substitute  has  been  generally  accepted. 
The  "  Middle  West ' '  is  a  term  variously  used  by  the  public, 
but  for  the  purpose  of  the  present  paper,  it  will  be  applied 
to  that  region  of  the  United  States  included  in  the  census 
reports  under  the  name  of  the  North  Central  division,  com 
prising  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and 
Wisconsin  (the  old  "  Territory  Northwest  of  the  River  Ohio  "), 
and  their  trans-Mississippi  sisters  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase, 
—  Missouri,  Iowa,  Minnesota,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  North  Dako 
ta,  and  South  Dakota.  It  is  an  imperial  domain.  If  the 
greater  countries  of  Central  Europe, —  France,  Germany,  Italy, 
and  Austro-Hungary, —  were  laid  down  upon  this  area,  the 
Middle  West  would  still  show  a  margin  of  spare  territory. 
Pittsburgh,  Cleveland,  and  Buffalo  constitute  its  gateways  to  the 
Eastern  States;  Kansas  City,  Omaha,  St.  Paul-Minneapolis, 
and  Duluth-Superior  dominate  its  western  areas;  Cincinnati 
and  St.  Louis  stand  on  its  southern  borders;  and  Chicago 
reigns  at  the  center.  What  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
and  Baltimore  are  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard  these  cities  are  to 

1  With   acknowledgments    to   the  International   Monthly,   December, 

1901. 

126 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST  127 

the  Middle  West.  The  Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi,  with 
the  Ohio  and  the  Missouri  as  laterals,  constitute  the  vast  water 
system  that  binds  the  Middle  West  together.  It  is  the  economic 
and  political  center  of  the  Republic.  At  one  edge  is  the  Popu 
lism  of  the  prairies;  at  the  other,  the  capitalism  that  is  typi 
fied  in  Pittsburgh.  Great  as  are  the  local  differences  within 
the  Middle  West,  it  possesses,  in  its  physiography,  in  the  his 
tory  of  its  settlement,  and  in  its  economic  and  social  life,  a 
unity  and  interdependence  which  warrant  a  study  of  the  area 
as  an  entity.  Within  the  limits  of  this  article,  treatment  of  so 
vast  a  region,  however,  can  at  best  afford  no  more  than  an 
outline  sketch,  in  which  old  and  well-known  facts  must,  if 
possible,  be  so  grouped  as  to  explain  the  position  of  the  sec 
tion  in  American  history. 

In  spite  of  the  difficulties  of  the  task,  there  is  a  definite 
advantage  in  so  large  a  view.  By  fixing  our  attention  too 
exclusively  upon  the  artificial  boundary  lines  of  the  States,  we 
have  failed  to  perceive  much  that  is  significant  in  the  west 
ward  development  of  the  United  States.  For  instance,  our 
colonial  system  did  not  begin  with  the  Spanish  War ;  the  United 
States  has  had  a  colonial  history  and  policy  from  the  begin 
ning  of  the  Republic;  but  they  have  been  hidden  under  the 
phraseology  of  "  interstate  migration  "  and  "  territorial  organ 
ization." 

The  American  people  have  occupied  a  spacious  wilderness; 
vast  physiographic  provinces,  each  with  its  own  peculiarities, 
have  lain  across  the  path  of  this  migration,  and  each  has  fur 
nished  a  special  environment  for  economic  and  social  trans 
formation.  It  is  possible  to  underestimate  the  importance  of 
State  lines,  but  if  we  direct  our  gaze  rather  to  the  physiogra 
phic  province  than  to  the  State  area,  we  shall  be  able  to  see 
some  facts  in  a  new  light.  Then  it  becomes  clear  that  these 
physiographic  provinces  of  America  are  in  some  respects  com- 


128       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

parable  to  the  countries  of  Europe,  and  that  each  has  its  own 
history  of  occupation  and  development.  General  Francis  A. 
Walker  once  remarked  that  "  the  course  of  settlement  has  called 
upon  our  people  to  occupy  territory  as  extensive  as  Switzer 
land,  as  England,  as  Italy,  and  latterly,  as  France  or  Ger 
many,  every  ten  years."  It  is  this  element  of  vastness  in  the 
achievements  of  American  democracy  that  gives  a  peculiar 
interest  to  the  conquest  and  development  of  the  Middle  West. 
The  effects  of  this  conquest  and  development  upon  the  present 
United  States  have  been  of  fundamental  importance. 

Geographically  the  Middle  West  is  almost  conterminous 
with  the  Provinces  of  the  Lake  and  Prairie  Plains;  but  the 
larger  share  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  and  the  western  part  of 
the  two  Dakotas  belong  to  the  Great  Plains;  the  Ozark  Moun 
tains  occupy  a  portion  of  Missouri,  and  the  southern  parts  of 
Ohio  and  Indiana  merge  into  the  Alleghany  Plateau.  The 
relation  of  the  Provinces  of  the  Lake  and  Prairie  Plains  to 
the  rest  of  the  United  States  is  an  important  element  in  the 
significance  of  the  Middle  West.  On  the  north  lies  the  sim 
ilar  region  of  Canada :  the  Great  Lakes  are  in  the  center  of  the 
whole  eastern  and  more  thickly  settled  half  of  North  America, 
and  they  bind  the  Canadian  and  Middle  Western  people 
together.  On  the  south,  the  provinces  meet  the  apex  of  that 
of  the  Gulf  Plains,  and  the  Mississippi  unites  them.  To  the 
west,  they  merge  gradually  into  the  Great  Plains;  the  Missouri 
and  its  tributaries  and  the  Pacific  railroads  make  for  them  a 
bond  of  union;  another  rather  effective  bond  is  the  interdepend 
ence  of  the  cattle  of  the  plains  and  the  corn  of  the  prairies.  To 
the  east,  the  province  meets  the  Alleghany  and  New  England 
Plateaus,  and  is  connected  with  them  by  the  upper  Ohio  and  by 
the  line  of  the  Erie  Canal.  Here  the  interaction  of  industrial 
life  and  the  historical  facts  of  settlement  have  produced  a  close 
relationship.  The  intimate  connection  between  the  larger  part 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST  129 

of  the  North  Central  and  the  North  Atlantic  divisions  of  the 
United  States  will  impress  any  one  who  examines  the  indus 
trial  and  social  maps  of  the  census  atlas.  By  reason  of  these 
interprovincial  relationships,  the  Middle  West  is  the  mediator 
between  Canada  and  the  United  States,  and  between  the  con 
centrated  wealth  and  manufactures  of  the  North  Atlantic  States 
and  the  sparsely  settled  Western  mining,  cattle-raising,  and 
agricultural  States.  It  has  a  connection  with  the  South  that 
was  once  still  closer,  and  is  likely  before  long  to  reassert  itself 
with  new  power.  Within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  there 
fore,  we  have  problems  of  interprovincial  trade  and  commerce 
similar  to  those  that  exist  between  the  nations  of  the  Old 
World. 

Over  most  of  the  Province  of  the  Lake  and  Prairie  Plains 
the  Laurentide  glacier  spread  its  drift,  rich  in  loess  and  other 
rock  powder,  which  farmers  in  less  favored  sections  must 
purchase  to  replenish  the  soil.  The  alluvial  deposit  from 
primeval  lakes  contributed  to  fatten  the  soil  of  other  parts  of 
the  prairies.  Taken  as  a  whole,  the  Prairie  Plains  surpass  in 
fertility  any  other  region  of  America  or  Europe,  unless  we 
except  some  territory  about  the  Black  Sea.  It  is  a  land  marked 
out  as  the  granary  of  the  nation ;  but  it  is  more  than  a  granary. 
On  the  rocky  shores  of  Lake  Superior  were  concealed  copper 
mines  rivaled  only  by  those  of  Montana,  and  iron  fields  which 
now  2  furnish  the  ore  for  the  production  of  eighty  per  cent  of 
the  pig  iron  of  the  United  States.  The  Great  Lakes  afford  a 
highway  between  these  iron  fields  and  the  coal  areas  of  the 
Ohio  Valley.  The  gas  and  oil  deposits  of  the  Ohio  Valley,  the 
coal  of  Illinois,  Iowa,  Michigan,  and  eastern  Kansas,  the  lead 
and  zinc  of  the  Ozark  region  and  of  the  upper  Mississippi 
Valley,  and  the  gold  of  the  black  Hills, —  all  contribute  under 
ground  wealth  to  the  Middle  West. 


130       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  primeval  American  forest  once  spread  its  shade  over 
vast  portions  of  the  same  province.  Ohio,  Indiana,  southern 
Michigan,  and  central  Wisconsin  were  almost  covered  with  a 
growth  of  noble  deciduous  trees.  In  southern  Illinois,  along 
the  broad  bottom  lands  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Illinois, 
and  in  southern  and  southwestern  Missouri,  similar  forests 
prevailed.  To  the  north,  in  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  Minne 
sota,  appeared  the  somber  white  pine  wilderness,  interlaced 
with  hard  woods,  which  swept  in  ample  zone  along  the  Great 
Lakes,  till  the  deciduous  forests  triumphed  again,  and,  in  their 
turn,  faded  into  the  treeless  expanse  of  the  prairies.  In  the 
remaining  portions  were  openings  in  the  midst  of  the  forested 
area,  and  then  the  grassy  ocean  of  prairie  that  rolled  to  west 
and  northwest,  until  it  passed  beyond  the  line  of  sufficient  rain 
fall  for  agriculture  without  irrigation,  into  the  semi-arid 
stretches  of  the  Great  Plains. 

In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  forested  region 
of  this  province  was  occupied  by  the  wigwams  of  many  differ 
ent  tribes  of  the  Algonquin  tongue,  sparsely  scattered  in  vil 
lages  along  the  water  courses,  warring  and  trading  through 
the  vast  wilderness.  The  western  edge  of  the  prairie  and  the 
Great  Plains  were  held  by  the  Sioux,  chasing  herds  of  bison 
across  these  far-stretching  expanses.  These  horsemen  of  the 
plains  and  the  canoemen  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Ohio  were 
factors  with  which  civilization  had  to  reckon,  for  they  consti 
tuted  important  portions  of  perhaps  the  fiercest  native  race  with 
which  the  white  man  has  ever  battled  for  new  lands. 

The  Frenchman  had  done  but  little  fighting  for  this  region. 
He  swore  brotherhood  with  its  savages,  traded  with  them,  inter 
married  with  them,  and  explored  the  Middle  West;  but  he  left 
the  wilderness  much  as  he  found  it.  Some  six  or  seven  thou 
sand  French  people  in  all,  about  Detroit  and  Vincennes,  and 
in  the  Illinois  country,  and  scattered  among  the  Indian  villages 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST  131 

of  the  remote  lakes  and  streams,  held  possession  when  George 
Washington  reached  the  site  of  Pittsburgh,  bearing  Virginia's 
summons  of  eviction  to  France.     In  his  person  fate  knocked 
at  the  portals  of  a  "  rising  empire."     France  hurried  her  com 
manders  and  garrisons,  with  Indian  allies,  from  the  posts  about 
the  Great  Lakes  and  the  upper  Mississippi;  but  it  was  in  vain. 
In  vain,  too,  the  aftermath  of  Pontiac's  widespread   Indian 
uprising  against  the  English  occupation.     When  she  came  into 
possession  of  the  lands  between  the  Ohio,  the  Mississippi,  and 
the  Great  Lakes,  England  organized  them  as  a  part  of  the  Prov 
ince  of  Quebec.     The  daring  conquest  of  George  Rogers  Clark 
left  Virginia  in  military  possession  of  the  Illinois  country 
at  the  conclusion  of  the  Revolutionary  War;  but  over  all  the 
remainder   of  the   Old  Northwest,   England   was  in   control. 
Although  she  ceded  the  region  by  the  treaty  which  closed  the 
Revolution,  she  remained  for  many  years  the  mistress  of  the 
Indians    and    the    fur    trade.     When    Lord    Shelburne    was 
upbraided  in  parliament  for  yielding  the  Northwest  to  the 
United   States,   the   complaint  was   that  he  had   clothed   the 
Americans  "  in  the  warm  covering  of  our  fur  trade,"  and  his 
defense  was  that  the  peltry  trade  of  the  ceded  tract  was  not 
sufficiently  profitable  to  warrant  further  war.     But  the  English 
government  became  convinced  that  the  Indian  trade  demanded 
the  retention  of  the  Northwest,  and  she  did  in  fact  hold  her 
posts  there  in  spite  of  the  treaty  of  peace.     Dundas,  the  Eng 
lish  secretary  for  the  colonies,  expressed  the  policy,  when  he 
declared,  in  1792,  that  the  object  was  to  interpose  an  Indian 
barrier  between  Canada  and  the  United  States;  and  in  pur 
suance  of  this  policy  of  preserving  the  Northwest  as  an  Indian 
buffer  State,  the  Canadian  authorities  supported  the  Indians 
in  their  resistance  to  American  settlement  beyond  the  Ohio. 
The  conception  of  the  Northwest  as  an  Indian  reserve  strik 
ingly  exhibits  England's  inability  to  foresee  the  future  of  the 


132       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

region,  and  to  measure  the  forces  of  American   expansion. 

By  the  cessions  of  Virginia,  New  York,  Massachusetts,  and 
Connecticut,  the  Old  Congress  had  come  into  nominal  posses 
sion  of  an  extensive  public  domain,  and  a  field  for  the  exer 
cise  of  national  authority.  The  significance  of  this  fact  in 
the  development  of  national  power  is  not  likely  to  be  overes 
timated.  The  first  result  was  the  completion  of  the  Ordinance 
of  1787,  which  provided  a  territorial  government  for  the  Old 
Northwest,  with  provisions  for  the  admission  of  States  into 
the  Union.  This  federal  colonial  system  guaranteed  that  the 
new  national  possessions  should  not  be  governed  as  dependent 
provinces,  but  should  enter  as  a  group  of  sister  States  into  the 
federation.3  While  the  importance  of  the  article  excluding 
slavery  has  often  been  pointed  out,  it  is  probable  that  the  pro 
visions  for  a  federal  colonial  organization  have  been  at  least 
equally  potential  in  our  actual  development.  The  full  sig 
nificance  of  this  feature  of  the  Ordinance  is  only  appreciated 
when  we  consider  its  continuous  influence  upon  the  American 
territorial  and  State  policy  in  the  westward  expansion  to  the 
Pacific,  and  the  political  preconceptions  with  which  Americans 
approach  the  problems  of  government  in  the  new  insular  pos 
sessions.  The  Land  Ordinance  of  1785  is  also  worthy  of  atten 
tion  in  this  connection,  for  under  its  provisions  almost  all  of 
the  Middle  West  has  been  divided  by  the  government  surveyor 
into  rectangles  of  sections  and  townships,  by  whose  lines  the 
settler  has  been  able  easily  and  certainly  to  locate  his  farm, 
and  the  forester  his  "  forty."  In  the  local  organization  of  the 
Middle  West  these  lines  have  played  an  important  part. 

It  would  be  impossible  within  the  limits  of  this  paper  to 
detail  the  history  of  the  occupation  of  the  Middle  West;  but 
the  larger  aspects  of  the  flow  of  population  into  the  region  may 

3  See  F.  J.  Turner,  "Western  State-Making  in  the  Revolutionary 
Era,"  in  Am.  Historical  Review,  i,  pp.  70  et  seq. 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST  133 

be  sketched.  Massachusetts  men  had  formed  the  Ohio  Com 
pany,  and  had  been  influential  in  shaping  the  liberal  provi 
sions  of  the  Ordinance.  Their  land  purchase,  paid  for  in 
soldiers'  certificates,  embraced  an  area  larger  than  the  State 
of  Rhode  Island.  At  Marietta  in  1788,  under  the  shelter  of 
Fort  Harmar,  their  bullet-proof  barge  landed  the  first  New 
England  colony.  A  New  Jersey  colony  was  planted  soon 
after  at  Cincinnati  in  the  Symmes  Purchase.  Thus  Ameri 
can  civilization  crossed  the  Ohio.  The  French  settlements  at 
Detroit  and  in  Indiana  and  Illinois  belonged  to  other  times 
and  had  their  own  ideals;  but  with  the  entrance  of  the  Amer- 
can  pioneer  into  the  forest  of  the  Middle  West,  a  new  era 
began.  The  Indians,  with  the  moral  support  of  England, 
resisted  the  invasion,  and  an  Indian  war  followed.  -The  con 
quest  of  Wayne,  in  1795,  pushed  back  the  Indians  to  the  Green 
ville  line,  extending  irregularly  across  the  State  of  Ohio  from 
the  site  of  Cleveland  to  Fort  Recovery  in  the  middle  point  of 
her  present  western  boundary,  and  secured  certain  areas  in 
Indiana.  In  the  same  period  Jay's  treaty  provided  for  the 
withdrawal  of  the  British  posts.  After  this  extension  of  the 
area  open  to  the  pioneer,  new  settlements  were  rapidly  formed. 
Connecticut  disposed  of  her  reserved  land  about  Lake  Erie  to 
companies,  and  in  17%  General  Moses  Cleaveland  led  the 
way  to  the  site  of  the  city  that  bears  his  name.  This  was  the 
beginning  of  the  occupation  of  the  Western  Reserve,  a  dis 
trict  about  as  large  as  the  parent  State  of  Connecticut,  a  New 
England  colony  in  the  Middle  West,  which  has  maintained, 
even  to  the  present  time,  the  impress  of  New  England  traits. 
Virginia  and  Kentucky  settlers  sought  the  Virginia  Military 
Bounty  Lands,  and  the  foundation  of  Chillicothe  here,  in  1796, 
afforded  a  center  for  Southern  settlement.  The  region  is  a 
modified  extension  of  the  limestone  area  of  Kentucky,  and 
naturally  attracted  the  emigrants  from  the  Blue  Grass  State. 


134       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Ohio's  history  is  deeply  marked  by  the  interaction  of  the  New 
England,  Middle,  and  Southern  colonies  within  her  borders. 

By  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  Napoleon's 
cession  brought  to  the  United  States  the  vast  spaces  of  the 
Louisiana  Purchase  beyond  the  Mississippi,  the  pioneers  had 
hardly  more  than  entered  the  outskirts  of  the  forest  along  the 
Ohio  and  Lake  Erie.  But  by  1810  the  government  had  extin 
guished  the  Indian  title  to  the  unsecured  portions  of  the  West 
ern  Reserve,  and  to  great  tracts  of  Indiana,  along  the  Ohio 
and  up  the  Wabash  Valley;  thus  protecting  the  Ohio  high 
way  from  the  Indians,  and  opening  new  lands  to  settlement. 
The  embargo  had  destroyed  the  trade  of  New  England,  and 
had  weighted  down  her  citizens  with  debt  and  taxation;  cara 
vans  of  Yankee  emigrant  wagons,  precursors  of  the  "  prairie 
schooner,"  had  already  begun  to  cross  Pennsylvania  on  their 
way  to  Ohio;  and  they  now  greatly  increased  in  number. 
North  Carolina  back  countrymen  flocked  to  the  Indiana  settle 
ments,  giving  the  peculiar  Hoosier  flavor  to  the  State,  and 
other  Southerners  followed,  outnumbering  the  Northern  immi 
grants,  who  sought  the  eastern  edge  of  Indiana. 

Tecumthe,  rendered  desperate  by  the  advance  into  his  hunt 
ing  grounds,  took  up  the  hatchet,  made  wide-reaching  al 
liances  among  the  Indians,  and  turned  to  England  for  pro 
tection.  The  Indian  war  merged  into  the  War  of  1812,  and 
the  settlers  strove  in  vain  to  add  Canadian  lands  to  their  empire. 
In  the  diplomatic  negotiations  that  followed  the  war,  England 
made  another  attempt  to  erect  the  Old  Northwest  beyond  the 
Greenville  line  into  a  permanent  Indian  barrier  between  Can 
ada  and  the  United  States;  but  the  demand  was  refused,  and 
by  the  treaties  of  1818,  the  Indians  were  pressed  still  farther 
north.  In  the  meantime,  Indian  treaties  had  released  addi 
tional  land  in  southern  Illinois,  and  pioneers  were  widening 
the  bounds  of  the  old  French  settlements.  Avoiding  the  rich 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST  135 

savannas  of  the  prairie  regions,  as  devoid  of  wood,  remote 
from  transportation  facilities,  and  suited  only  to  grazing,  they 
entered  the  hard  woods  —  and  in  the  early  twenties  they  were 
advancing  in  a  wedge-shaped  column  up  the  Illinois  Valley. 
The  Southern  element  constituted  the  main  portion  of  this 
phalanx  of  ax-bearers.  Abraham  Lincoln's  father  joined 
the  throng  of  Kentuckians  that  entered  the  Indiana  woods  in 
1816,  and  the  boy,  when  he  had  learned  to  hew  out  a  forest 
home,  betook  himself,  in  1830,  to  Sangamon  county,  Illinois. 
He  represents  the  pioneer  of  the  period;  but  his  ax  sank 
deeper  than  other  men's,  and  the  plaster  cast  of  his  great 
sinewy  hand,  at  Washington,  embodies  the  training  of  these 
frontier  railsplitters,  in  the  days  when  Fort  Dearborn,  on  the 
site  of  Chicago,  was  but  a  military  outpost  in  a  desolate  coun 
try.  While  the  hard  woods  of  Illinois  were  being  entered,  the 
pioneer  movement  passed  also  into  the  Missouri  Valley.  The 
French  lead  miners  had  already  opened  the  southeastern  sec 
tion,  and  Southern  mountaineers  had  pushed  up  the  Missouri; 
but  now  the  planters  from  the  Ohio  Valley  and  the  upper 
Tennessee  followed,  seeking  the  alluvial  soils  for  slave  labor. 
Moving  across  the  southern  border  of  free  Illinois,  they  had 
Awakened  regrets  in  that  State  at  the  loss  of  so  large  a  body 
i  of  settlers. 

Looking  at  the  Middle  West,  as  a  whole,  in  the  decade  from 
1810  to  1820,  we  perceive  that  settlement  extended  from  the 
shores  of  Lake  Erie  in  an  arc,  following  the  banks  of  the  Ohio 
till  it  joined  the  Mississippi,  and  thence  along  that  river  and 
up  the  Missouri  well  into  the  center  of  the  State.  The  next 
decade  was  marked  by  the  increased  use  of  the  steamboat; 
pioneers  pressed  farther  up  the  streams,  etching  out  the  hard 
wood  forests  well  up  to  the  prairie  lands,  and  forming  addi 
tional  tracts  of  settlement  in  the  region  tributary  to  Detroit 
and  in  the  southeastern  part  of  Michigan.  In  the  area  of  the 


136       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Galena  lead  mines  of  northwestern  Illinois,  southwestern  Wis 
consin,  and  northeastern  Iowa,  Southerners  had  already  begun 
operations;  and  if  we  except  Ohio  and  Michigan,  the  dominant 
element  in  all  this  overflow  of  settlement  into  the  Middle  West 
was  Southern,  particularly  from  Kentucky,  Virginia,  and  North 
Carolina.  The  settlements  were  still  dependent  on  the  rivers 
for  transportation,  and  the  areas  between  the  rivers  were  but 
lightly  occupied.  The  Mississippi  constituted  the  principal 
outlet  for  the  products  of  the  Middle  West;  Pittsburgh  fur 
nished  most  of  the  supplies  for  the  region,  but  New  Orleans 
received  its  crops.  The  Old  National  road  was  built  piecemeal, 
and  too  late,  as  a  whole,  to  make  a  great  artery  of  trade 
throughout  the  Middle  West,  in  this  early  period;  but  it 
marked  the  northern  borders  of  the  Southern  stream  of  popula 
tion,  running,  as  this  did,  through  Columbus,  Indianapolis,  and 
Vandalia. 

The  twenty  years  from  1830  to  1850  saw  great  changes  in 
the  composition  of  the  population  of  the  Middle  West.  The 
opening  of  the  Erie  Canal  in  1825  was  an  epoch-making  event. 
It  furnished  a  new  outlet  and  inlet  for  northwestern  traffic; 
Buffalo  began  to  grow,  and  New  York  City  changed  from  a 
local  market  to  a  great  commercial  center.  But  even  more 
important  was  the  place  which  the  canal  occupied  as  the  high 
way  for  a  new  migration. 

In  the  march  of  the  New  England  people  from  the  coast, 
three  movements  are  of  especial  importance:  the  advance  from 
the  seaboard  up  the  Connecticut  and  Housatonic  Valleys 
through  Massachusetts  and  into  Vermont;  the  advance  thence 
to  central  and  western  New  York;  and  the  advance  to  the 
interior  of  the  Old  Northwest.  The  second  of  these  stages 
occupied  the  generation  from  about  1790  to  1820;  after  that 
the  second  generation  was  ready  to  seek  new  lands;  and  these 
the  Erie  Canal  and  lake  navigation  opened  to  them,  and  to  the 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST  137 

Vermonters  and  other  adventurous  spirits  of  New  England.  It 
was  this  combined  New  York-New  England  stream  that  in  the 
thirties  poured  in  large  volume  into  the  zone  north  of  the 
settlements  which  have  been  described.  The  newcomers  filled 
in  the  southern  counties  of  Michigan  and  Wisconsin,  the  north 
ern  countries  of  Illinois,  and  parts  of  the  northern  and  central 
areas  of  Indiana.  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  sent  a  similar  type 
of  people  to  the  area  adjacent  to  those  States.  In  Iowa  a 
stream  combined  of  the  Southern  element  and  of  these  settlers 
sought  the  wooded  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi  in  the 
southeastern  part  of  the  State.  In  default  of  legal  authority, 
in  this  early  period,  they  formed  squatter  governments  and 
land  associations,  comparable  to  the  action  of  the  Massachu 
setts  men  who  in  the  first  third  of  the  seventeenth  century 
"  squatted  "  in  the  Connecticut  Valley. 

A  great  forward  movement  had  occurred,  which  took  pos 
session  of  oak  openings  and  prairies,  gave  birth  to  the  cities  of 
Chicago,  Milwaukee,  St.  Paul,  and  Minneapolis,  as  well  as 
to  a  multitude  of  lesser  cities,  and  replaced  the  dominance  of 
the  Southern  element  by  that  of  a  modified  Puritan  stock.  The 
railroad  system  of  the  early  fifties  bound  the  Mississippi  to 
the  North  Atlantic  seaboard;  New  Orleans  gave  way  to  New 
York  as  the  outlet  for  the  Middle  West,  and  the  day  of  river 
settlement  was  succeeded  by  the  era  of  inter-river  settlement 
and  railway  transportation.  The  change  in  the  political  and 
social  ideals  was  at  least  equal  to  the  change  in  economic  con 
nections,  and  together  these  forces  made  an  intimate  organic 
union  between  New  England,  New  York,  and  the  newly  settled 
West.  In  estimating  the  New  England  influence  in  the  Middle 
West,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  New  York  settlers  were 
mainly  New  Englanders  of  a  later  generation. 

Combined  with  the  streams  from  the  East  came  the  German 
migration  into  the  Middle  West.  Over  half  a  million,  mainly 


I   138       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

from  the  Palatinate,  Wiirtemberg,  and  the  adjacent  regions, 
sought  America  between  1830  and  1850,  and  nearly  a  million 
more  Germans  came  in  the  next  decade.  The  larger  portion 
of  these  went  into  the  Middle  West;  they  became  pioneers  in 
the  newer  parts  of  Ohio,  especially  along  the  central  ridge, 
and  in  Cincinnati;  they  took  up  the  hardwood  lands  of  the 
Wisconsin  counties  along  Lake  Michigan;  and  they  came  in 
important  numbers  to  Missouri,  Illinois,  Indiana,  and  Mich 
igan,  and  to  the  river  towns  of  Iowa.'  The  migration  in  the 
thirties  and  forties  contained  an  exceptionally  large  propor 
tion  of  educated  and  forceful  leaders,  men  who  had  strug 
gled  in  vain  for  the  ideal  of  a  liberal  German  nation,  and 
who  contributed  important  intellectual  forces  to  the  com 
munities  in  which  they  settled.  The  Germans,  as  a  whole, 
furnished  a  conservative  and  thrifty  agricultural  element  to 
the  Middle  West.  In  some  of  their  social  ideals  they  came  into 
collision  with  the  Puritan  element  from  New  England,  and  the 
outcome  of  the  steady  contest  has  been  a  compromise.  Of  all 
the  Slates,  Wisconsin  has  been  most  deeply  influenced  by  the 
Germans. 

By  the  later  fifties,  therefore,  the  control  of  the  Middle  West 
had  passed  to  its  Northern  zone  of  population,  and  this  zone 
included  representatives  of  the  Middle  States,  New  England, 
and  Germany  as  its  principal  elements.  The  Southern  people, 
north  of  the  Ohio,  differed  in  important  respects  from  the 
Southerners  across  the  river.  They  had  sprung  largely  from 
the  humbler  classes  of  the  South,  although  there  were  impor 
tant  exceptions.  The  early  pioneer  life,  however,  was  ill-suited 
to  the  great  plantations,  and  slavery  was  excluded  under  the 
Ordinance.  Thus  this  Southern  zone  of  the  Middle  West, 
particularly  in  Indiana  and  Illinois,  constituted  a  mediating 
section  between  the  South  and  the  North.  The  Mississippi 
still  acted  as  a  bond  of  union,  and  up  to  the  close  of  the  War 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST  139 

of  1812  the  Valley,  north  and  south,  had  been  fundamentally 
of  the  same  social  organization.  In  order  to  understand  what 
follows,  we  must  bear  in  mind  the  outlines  of  the  occupation 
of  the  Gulf  Plains.  While  settlement  had  been  crossing  the 
Ohio  to  the  Northwest,  the  spread  of  cotton  culture  and  negro 
slavery  into  the  Southwest  had  been  equally  significant.  What 
the  New  England  States  and  New  York  were  in  the  occupation 
of  the  Middle  West,  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia  were 
in  the  occupation  of  the  Gulf  States.  But,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Northwest,  a  modification  of  the  original  stock  occurred  in  the 
new  environment.  A  greater  energy  and  initiative  appeared 
in  the  new  Southern  lands;  the  pioneer's  devotion  to  exploit 
ing  the  territory  in  which  he  was  placed  transferred  slavery 
from  the  patriarchal  to  the  commercial  basis.  The  same/T. 
expansive  tendency  seen  in  the  Northwest  revealed  itself,  with 
a  belligerent  seasoning,  in  the  Gulf  States.  They  had  a  pro 
gram  of  action.  Abraham  Lincoln  migrated  from  Ken 
tucky  to  Indiana  and  to  Illinois.  Jefferson  Davis  moved  from 
Kentucky  to  Louisiana,  and  thence  to  Mississippi,  in  the  same 
period.  Starting  from  the  same  locality,  each  represented  the 
divergent  flow  of  streams  of  settlement  into  contrasted  environ 
ments.  The  result  of  these  antagonistic  streams  of  migration 
to  the  West  was  a  struggle  between  the  Lake  and  Prairie  plains 
men,  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Gulf  plainsmen,  on  the  other,  for 
the  possession  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  It  was  the  crucial 
part  of  the  struggle  between  the  Northern  and  Southern  sec 
tions  of  the  nation.  What  gave  slavery  and  State  sovereignty 
their  power  as  issues  was  the  fact  that  they  involved  the  ques 
tion  of  dominance  over  common  territory  in  an  expanding 
nation.  The  place  of  the  Middle  West  in  the  origin  and  set 
tlement  of  the  great  slavery  struggle  is  of  the  highest  signifi 
cance. 

In  the  early  history  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  a  modi- 


140       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

fied  form  of  slavery  existed  under  a  system  of  indenture  of  the 
colored  servant;  and  the  effort  of  Southern  settlers  in  Indiana 
and  in  Illinois  to  reintroduce  slavery  are  indicative  of  the 
importance  of  the  pro-slavery  element  in  the  Northwest.  But 
the  most  significant  early  manifestation  of  the  rival  currents 
of  migration  with  respect  to  slavery  is  seen  in  the  contest 
which  culminated  in  the  Missouri  Compromise.  The  histor 
ical  obstacle  of  the  Ordinance,  as  well  as  natural  conditions, 
gave  an  advantage  to  the  anti-slavery  settlers  northwest  of  the 
Ohio;  but  when  the  Mississippi  was  crossed,  and  the  rival 
streams  of  settlement  mingled  in  the  area  of  the  Louisiana  Pur 
chase,  the  struggle  followed.  It  was  an  Illinois  man,  with 
constituents  in  both  currents  of  settlement,  who  introduced  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  which  made  a  modus  vivendi  for  the 
Middle  West,  until  the  Compromise  of  1850  gave  to  Senator 
Douglas  of  Illinois,  in  1854,  the  opportunity  to  reopen  the 
issue  by  his  Kansas-Nebraska  bill.  In  his  doctrine  of 
"  squatter-sovereignty,"  or  the  right  of  the  territories  to  deter 
mine  the  question  of  slavery  within  their  bounds,  Douglas 
utilized  a  favorite  Western  political  idea,  one  which  Cass  of 
Michigan  had  promulgated  before.  Douglas  set  the  love  of  the 
Middle  West  for  local  self-government  against  its  preponder 
ant  antipathy  to  the  spread  of  slavery.  At  the  same  time  he 
brought  to  the  support  of  the  doctrine  the  Democratic  party, 
which  ever  since  the  days  of  Andrew  Jackson  had  voiced  the 
love  of  the  frontier  for  individualism  and  for  popular  power. 
In  his  "  Young  America  "  doctrines  Douglas  had  also  made 
himself  the  spokesman  of  Western  expansive  tendencies.  He 
thus  found  important  sources  of  popular  support  when  he 
invoked  the  localism  of  his  section.  Western  appeals  to  Con 
gress  for  aid  in  internal  improvements,  protective  tariffs,  and 
land  grants  had  been  indications  of  nationalism.  The  doctrine 
of  squatter-sovereignty  itself  catered  to  the  love  of  national 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST  141 

union  by  presenting  the  appearance  of  a  non-sectional  com 
promise,  which  should  allow  the  new  areas  of  the  Middle 
West  to  determine  their  own  institutions.  But  the  Free  Soil 
party,  strongest  in  the  regions  occupied  by  the  New  York- 
New  England  colonists,  and  having  for  its  program  national 
prohibition  of  the  spread  of  slavery  into  the  territories,  had 
already  found  in  the  Middle  West  an  important  center  of 
power.  The  strength  of  the  movement  far  surpassed  the  actual 
voting  power  of  the  Free  Soil  party,  for  it  compelled  both 
Whigs  and  Democrats  to  propose  fusion  on  the  basis  of  con 
cession  to  Free  Soil  doctrines.  The  New  England  settlers  and 
the  western  New  York  settlers, —  the  children  of  New  England, 
—  were  keenly  alive  to  the  importance  of  the  issue.  Indeed, 
Seward,  in  an  address  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  in  1860,  declared 
that  the  Northwest,  in  reality,  extended  to  the  base  of  the 
Alleghanies,  and  that  the  new  States  had  "  matured  just  in  the 
critical  moment  to  rally  the  free  States  of  the  Atlantic  coast, 
to  call  them  back  to  their  ancient  principles." 

These  Free  Soil  forces  and  the  nationalistic  tendencies  of  the 
Middle  West  proved  too  strong  for  the  opposing  doctrines 
when  the  real  struggle  came.  Calhoun  and  Taney  shaped  the 
issue  so  logically  that  the  Middle  West  saw  that  the  contest 
was  not  only  a  war  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  but  also 
a  war  for  the  possession  of  the  unoccupied  West,  a  struggle 
between  the  Middle  West  and  the  States  of  the  Gulf  Plains. 
The  economic  life  of  the  Middle  West  had  been  bound  by  the 
railroad  to  the  North  Atlantic,  and  its  interests,  as  well  as  its 
love  of  national  unity,  made  it  in  every  way  hostile  to  secession. 
When  Dr.  Cutler  had  urged  the  desires  of  the  Ohio  Company 
upon  Congress,  in  1787,  he  had  promised  to  plant  in  the 
Ohio  Valley  a  colony  that  would  stand  for  the  Union.  Vinton 
of  Ohio,  in  arguing  for  the  admission  of  Iowa,  urged  the  posi 
tion  of  the  Middle  West  as  the  great  unifying  section  of  the 


142       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

country:  "Disunion,"  he  said,  "is  ruin  to  them.  They  have 
no  alternative  but  to  resist  it  whenever  or  wherever  attempted. 
.  .  .  Massachusetts  and  South  Carolina  might,  for  aught 
I  know,  find  a  dividing  line  that  would  be  mutually  satisfac 
tory  to  them;  but,  Sir,  they  can  find  no  such  line  to  which 
the  western  country  can  assent."  But  it  was  Abraham  Lin 
coln  who  stated  the  issue  with  the  greatest  precision,  and  who 
voiced  most  clearly  the  nationalism  of  the  Middle  West,  when 
he  declared,  "A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand. 
I  believe  this  government  cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave 
and  half  free." 

So  it  was  that  when  the  civil  war  in  Kansas  grew  into  the 
Civil  War  in  the  Union,  after  Lincoln's  election  to  the  presi 
dency,  the  Middle  West,  dominated  by  its  combined  Puritan 
and  German  population,  ceased  to  compromise,  and  turned 
the  scale  in  favor  of  the  North.  The  Middle  West  furnished 
more  than  one-third  of  the  Union  troops.  The  names  of  Grant 
and  Sherman  are  sufficient  testimony  to  her  leadership  in  the 
field.  The  names  of  Lincoln  and  Chase  show  that  the  presi 
dential,  the  financial,  and  the  war  powers  were  in  the  hands  of 
the  Middle  West.  If  we  were  to  accept  Seward's  own  classi 
fication,  the  conduct  of  foreign  affairs  as  well  belonged  to 
the  same  section;  it  was,  at  least,  in  the  hands  of  representa 
tives  of  the  dominant  forces  of  the  section.  The  Middle  West, 
led  by  Grant  and  Sherman,  hewed  its  way  down  the  Mississippi 
and  across  the  Gulf  States,  and  Lincoln  could  exult  in  1863, 
"  The  Father  of  Waters  again  goes  unvexed  to  the  sea.  Thanks 
to  the  great  Northwest  for  it,  nor  yet  wholly  to  them." 

In  thus  outlining  the  relations  of  the  Middle  West  to  the 
slavery  struggle,  we  have  passed  over  important  extensions  of 
settlement  in  the  decade  before  the  war.  In  these  years,  not 
only  did  the  density  of  settlement  increase  in  the  older  por 
tions  of  the  region,  but  new  waves  of  colonization  passed 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST  143 

into  the  remoter  prairies.  Iowa's  pioneers,  after  Indian  ces 
sions  had  been  secured,  spread  well  toward  her  western  limits. 
Minnesota,  also,  was  recruited  by  a  column  of  pioneers.  The 
treaty  of  Traverse  de  Sioux,  in  1851,  opened  over  twenty  mil 
lion  acres  of  arable  land  in  that  State,  and  Minnesota  increased 
her  population  2730.7  per  cent  in  the  decade  from  1850  to 
1860. 

Up  to  this  decade  the  pine  belt  of  the  Middle  West,  in  north 
ern  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota  had  been  the  field  of 
operations  of  Indian  traders.  At  first  under  English  com 
panies,  and  afterward  under  Astor's  American  Fur  Company, 
the  traders  with  their  French  and  half-breed  boatmen  skirted 
the  Great  Lakes  and  followed  the  rivers  into  the  forests,  where 
they  stationed  their  posts  and  spread  goods  and  whiskey  among 
the  Indians.  Their  posts  were  centers  of  disintegration  among 
the  savages.  The  new  wants  and  the  demoralization  which 
resulted  from  the  Indian  trade  facilitated  the  purchases  of 
their  lands  by  the  federal  government.  The  trader  was  fol 
lowed  by  the  seeker  for  the  best  pine  land  "  forties  ";  and  by 
the  time  of  the  Civil  War  the  exploitation  of  the  pine  belt  had 
fairly  begun.  The  Irish  and  Canadian  choppers,  followed  by 
the  Scandinavians,  joined  the  forest  men,  and  log  drives  suc 
ceeded  the  trading  canoe.  Men  from  the  pine  woods  of  Maine 
and  Vermont  directed  the  industry,  and  became  magnates  in 
the  mill  towns  that  grew  up  in  the  forests, —  millionaires, 
and  afterwards  political  leaders.  In  the  prairie  country  of 
the  Middle  West,  the  Indian  trade  that  centered  at  St.  Louis 
had  been  important  ever  since  1820,  with  an  influence  upon 
the  Indians  of  the  plains  similar  to  the  influence  of  the  north 
ern  fur  trade  upon  the  Indians  of  the  forest.  By  1840  the 
removal  policy  had  effected  the  transfer  of  most  of  the  eastern 
tribes  to  lands  across  the  Mississippi.  Tribal  names  that  for 
merly  belonged  to  Ohio  and  the  rest  of  the  Old  Northwest 


144       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

were  found  on  the  map  of  the  Kansas  Valley.  The  Platte 
country  belonged  to  the  Pawnee  and  their  neighbors,  and  to 
the  north  along  the  Upper  Missouri  were  the  Sioux,  or  Dakota, 
Crow,  Cheyenne,  and  other  horse  Indians,  following  the 
vast  herds  of  buffalo  that  grazed  on  the  Great  Plains.  The 
discovery  of  California  gold  and  the  opening  of  the  Oregon 
country,  in  the  middle  of  the  century,  made  it  necessary  to 
secure  a  road  through  the  Indian  lands  for  the  procession 
of  pioneers  that  crossed  the  prairies  to  the  Pacific.  The  organ 
ization  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  in  1854,  was  the  first  step  in 
the  withdrawal  of  these  territories  from  the  Indians.  A  period 
of  almost  constant  Indian  hostility  followed,  for  the  savage 
lords  of  the  boundless  prairies  instinctively  felt  the  significance 
of  the  entrance  of  the  farmer  into  their  empire.  In  Minnesota 
the  Sioux  took  advantage  of  the  Civil  War  to  rise;  but  the 
outcome  was  the  destruction  of  their  reservations  in  that  State, 
and  the  opening  of  great  tracts  to  the  pioneers.  When  the 
Pacific  railways  were  begun,  Red  Cloud,  the  astute  Sioux 
chief,  who,  in  some  ways,  stands  as  the  successor  of  Pontiac 
and  of  Tecumthe,  rallied  the  principal  tribes  of  the  Great 
Plains  to  resist  the  march  of  civilization.  Their  hostility 
resulted  in  the  peace  measure  of  1867  and  1868,  which  assigned 
to  the  Sioux  and  their  allies  reservations  embracing  the  major 
portion  of  Dakota  territory,  west  of  the  Missouri  River.  The 
systematic  slaughter  of  millions  of  buffalo,  in  the  years  between 
1866  and  1873,  for  the  sake  of  their  hides,  put  an  end  to  the 
vast  herds  of  the  Great  Plains,  and  destroyed  the  economic 
foundation  of  the  Indians.  Henceforth  they  were  dependent 
on  the  whites  for  their  food  supply,  and  the  Great  Plains  were 
open  to  the  cattle  ranchers. 

In  a  preface  written  in  1872  for  a  new  edition  of  "The 
Oregon  Trail,"  which  had  appeared  in  1847,  Francis  Park- 
man  said,  **  The  wild  cavalcade  that  defiled  with  me  down 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST  145 

the  gorges  of  the  Black  Hills,  with  its  paint  and  war  plumes, 
fluttering  trophies  and  savage  embroidery,  bows,  arrows, 
lances,  and  shields,  will  never  be  seen  again."  The  prairies 
were  ready  for  the  final  rush  of  occupation.  The  homestead 
law  of  1862,  passed  in  the  midst  of  the  war,  did  not  reveal 
its  full  importance  as  an  element  in  the  settlement  of  the 
Middle  West  until  after  peace.  It  began  to  operate  most 
actively,  contemporaneously  with  the  development  of  the  sev 
eral  railways  to  the  Pacific,  in  the  two  decades  from  1870  to 
1890,  and  in  connection  with  the  marketing  of  the  railroad 
land  grants.  The  outcome  was  an  epoch-making  extension  of 
population. 

Before  1870  the  vast  and  fertile  valley  of  the  Red  River,  once 
the  level  bed  of  an  ancient  lake,  occupying  the  region  where 
North  Dakota  and  Minnesota  meet,  was  almost  virgin  soil. 
But  in  1875  the  great  Dalrymple  farm  showed  its  advantages 
for  wheat  raising,  and  a  tide  of  farm  seekers  turned  to  the 
region.  The  "  Jim  River  "  Valley  of  South  Dakota  attracted 
still  other  settlers.  The  Northern  Pacific  and  the  Great  North 
ern  Railway  thrust  out  laterals  into  these  Minnesota  and 
Dakota  wheat  areas  from  which  to  draw  the  nourishment  for 
their  daring  passage  to  the  Pacific.  The  Chicago,  Milwaukee 
and  St.  Paul,  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railway,  Burling 
ton,  and  other  roads,  gridironed  the  region;  and  the  unoccu 
pied  lands  of  the  Middle  West  were  taken  up  by  a  migration 
that  in  its  system  and  scale  is  unprecedented.  The  railroads 
sent  their  agents  and  their  literature  everywhere,  **  booming  " 
the  "Golden  West";  the  opportunity  for  economic  and  polit 
ical  fortunes  in  such  rapidly  growing  communities  attracted 
multitudes  of  Americans  whom  the  cheap  land  alone  would 
not  have  tempted.  In  1870  the  Dakotas  had  14,000  settlers; 
in  1890  they  had  over  510,000.  Nebraska's  population  was 
28,000  in  1860;  123,000  in  1870;  452,000  in  1880;  and  1,059,- 


146       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

000  in  1890.  Kansas  had  107,000  in  1860;  364,000  in  1870; 
996,000  in  1880;  and  1,427,000  in  1890.  Wisconsin  and  New 
York  gave  the  largest  fractions  of  the  native  element  to  Minne 
sota;  Illinois  and  Ohio  together  sent  perhaps  one-third  of  the 
native  element  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  but  the  Missouri  and 
Southern  settlers  were  strongly  represented  in  Kansas;  Wis 
consin,  New  York,  Minnesota,  and  Iowa  gave  North  Dakota 
the  most  of  her  native  settlers;  and  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Illinois, 
and  New  York  did  the  same  for  South  Dakota. 

Railroads  and  steamships  organized  foreign  immigration  on 
scale  and  system  never  before  equaled;  a  high-water  mark  of 
American  immigration  came  in  the  early  eighties.  Germans 
and  Scandinavians  were  rushed  by  emigrant  trains  out  to  the 
prairies,  to  fill  the  remaining  spaces  in  the  older  States  of  the 
Middle  West.  The  census  of  1890  showed  in  Minnesota  373,- 
000  persons  of  Scandinavian  parentage,  and  out  of  the  total 
million  and  one-half  persons  of  Scandinavian  parentage  in 
the  United  States,  the  Middle  West  received  all  but  about  three 
hundred  thousand.  The  persons  of  German  parentage  in  the 
Middle  West  numbered  over  four  millions  out  of  a  total  of 
less  than  seven  millions  in  the  whole  country.  The  province 
had,  in  1890,  a  smaller  proportion  of  persons  of  foreign  par 
entage  than  had  the  North  Atlantic  division,  but  the  proportions 
varied  greatly  in  the  different  States.  Indiana  had  the  lowest 
percentage,  20.38;  and,  rising  in  the  scale,  Missouri  had 
24.94;  Kansas  26.75;  Ohio  33.93;  Nebraska  42.45;  Iowa 
43.57;  Illinois  49.01;  Michigan  54.58;  Wisconsin  73.65; 
Minnesota  75.37;  and  North  Dakota  78.87. 

What  these  statistics  of  settlement  mean  when  translated 
into  the  pioneer  life  of  the  prairie,  cannot  be  told  here.  There 
were  sharp  contrasts  with  the  pioneer  life  of  the  Old  North 
west;  for  the  forest  shade,  there  was  substituted  the  boundless 
prairie;  the  sod  house  for  the  log  hut;  the  continental  rail- 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST  147 

way  for  the  old  National  Turnpike  and  the  Erie  Canal.  Life 
moved  faster,  in  larger  masses,  and  with  greater  momentum  in 
this  pioneer  movement.  The  horizon  line  was  more  remote. 
Things  were  done  in  the  gross.  The  transcontinental  railroad, 
the  bonanza  farm,  the  steam  plow,  harvester,  and  thresher, 
the  "  league-long  furrow,"  and  the  vast  cattle  ranches,  all 
suggested  spacious  combination  and  systematization  of  indus 
try.  The  largest  hopes  were  excited  by  these  conquests  of  the 
prairie.  The  occupation  of  western  Kansas  may  illustrate  the 
movement  which  went  on  also  in  the  west  of  Nebraska  and  the 
Dakotas.  The  pioneer  farmer  tried  to  push  into  the  region 
with  the  old  methods  of  settlement.  Deceived  by  rainy  seasons 
and  the  railroad  advertisements,  and  recklessly  optimistic, 
hosts  of  settlers  poured  out  into  the  plains  beyond  the  region 
of  sufficient  rainfall  for  successful  agriculture  without  irriga 
tion.  Dry  seasons  starved  them  back;  but  a  repetition  of 
good  rainfalls  again  aroused  the  determination  to  occupy 
the  western  plains.  Boom  towns  flourished  like  prairie  weeds; 
Eastern  capital  struggled  for  a  chance  to  share  in  the  venture, 
and  the  Kansas  farmers  eagerly  mortgaged  their  possessions  to 
secure  the  capital  so  freely  offered  for  their  attack  on  the  arid 
lands.  By  1887  the  tide  of  the  pioneer  farmers  had  flowed 
across  the  semi-arid  plains  to  the  western  boundary  of  the 
State.  But  it  was  a  hopeless  effort  to  conquer  a  new  province 
by  the  forces  that  had  won  the  prairies.  The  wave  of  settle 
ment  dashed  itself  in  vain  against  the  conditions  of  the  Great 
Plains.  The  native  American  farmer  had  received  his  first 
defeat;  farm  products  at  the  same  period  had  depreciated,  and 
he  turned  to  the  national  government  for  reinforcements. 

The  Populistic  movement  of  the  western  half  of  the  Middle 
West  is  a  complex  of  many  forces.  In  some  respects  it  is  the 
latest  manifestation  of  the  same  forces  that  brought  on  the 
crisis  of  1837  in  the  earlier  region  of  pioneer  exploitation. 


148       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

That  era  of  over-confidence,  reckless  internal  improvements, 
and  land  purchases  by  borrowed  capital,  brought  a  reaction 
when  it  became  apparent  that  the  future  had  been  over-dis 
counted.  But,  in  that  time,  there  were  the  farther  free  lands 
to  which  the  ruined  pioneer  could  turn.  The  demand  for  an 
expansion  of  the  currency  has  marked  each  area  of  Western 
advance.  The  greenback  movement  of  Ohio  and  the  eastern 
part  of  the  Middle  West  grew  into  the  fiat  money,  free  silver, 
and  land  bank  propositions  of  the  Populists  across  the  Missis 
sippi.  Efforts  for  cheaper  transportation  also  appear  in  each 
stage  of  Western  advance.  When  the  pioneer  left  the  rivers 
and  had  to  haul  his  crops  by  wagon  to  a  market,  the  trans 
portation  factor  determined  both  his  profits  and  the  extension 
of  settlement.  Demands  for  national  aid  to  roads  and  canals 
had  marked  the  pioneer  advance  of  the  first  third  of  the  cen 
tury.  The  "  Granger  "  attacks  upon  the  railway  rates,  and 
in  favor  of  governmental  regulation,  marked  a  second  advance 
of  Western  settlement.  The  Farmers'  Alliance  and  the  Popu 
list  demand  for  government  ownership  of  the  railroad  is  a 
phase  of  the  same  effort  of  the  pioneer  farmer,  on  his  latest 
frontier.  The  proposals  have  taken  increasing  proportions 
in  each  region  of  Western  Advance.  Taken  as  a  whole,  Popu 
lism  is  a  manifestation  of  the  old  pioneer  ideals  of  the  native 
American,  with  the  added  element  of  increasing  readiness  to 
utilize  the  national  government  to  effect  its  ends.  This  is  not 
unnatural  in  a  section  whose  lands  were  originally  purchased 
by  the  government  and  given  away  to  its  settlers  by  the  same 
authority,  whose  railroads  were  built  largely  by  federal  land 
grants,  and  whose  settlements  were  protected  by  the  United 
States  army  and  governed  by  the  national  authority  until  they 
were  carved  into  rectangular  States  and  admitted  into  the 
Union.  Its  native  settlers  were  drawn  from  many  States,  many 
of  them  former  soldiers  of  the  Civil  War,  who  mingled  in  new 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST  149 

lands  with  foreign  immigrants  accustomed  to  the  rigorous 
authority  of  European  national  governments. 

But  these  old  ideals  of  the  American  pioneer,  phrased  in 
the  new  language  of  national  power,  did  not  meet  with  the 
assent  of  the  East.  Even  in  the  Middle  West  a  change  of 
deepest  import  had  been  in  progress  during  these  years  of 
prairie  settlement.  The  agricultural  preponderance  of  the 
country  has  passed  to  the  prairies,  and  manufacturing  has 
developed  in  the  areas  once  devoted  to  pioneer  farming.  In 
the  decade  prior  to  the  Civil  War,  the  area  of  greatest  wheat 
production  passed  from  Ohio  and  the  States  to  the  east,  into 
Illinois,  Indiana,  and  Wisconsin;  after  1880,  the  center  of 
wheat  growing  moved  across  the  Mississippi;  and  in  1890  the 
new  settlements  produced  half  the  crop  of  the  United  States. 
The  corn  area  shows  a  similar  migration.  In  1840  the  South 
ern  States  produced  half  the  crop,  and  the  Middle  West  one- 
fifth;  by  1860  the  situation  was  reversed  and  in  1890  nearly 
one-half  the  corn  of  the  Union  came  from  beyond  the  Missis 
sippi.  Thus  the  settlers  of  the  Old  Northwest  and  their  crops 
have  moved  together  across  the  Mississippi,  and  in  the  regions 
whence  they  migrated  varied  agriculture  and  manufacture 
have  sprung  up. 

As  these  movements  in  population  and  products  have  passed 
across  the  Middle  West,  and  as  the  economic  life  of  the  eastern 
border  has  been  intensified,  a  huge  industrial  organism  has 
been  created  in  the  province, —  an  organism  of  tremendous 
power,  activity,  and  unity.  Fundamentally  the  Middle  West 
is  an  agricultural  area  unequaled  for  its  combination  of  space, 
variety,  productiveness,  and  freedom  from  interruption  by 
deserts  or  mountains.  The  huge  water  system  of  the  Great 
Lakes  has  become  the  highway  of  a  mighty  commerce.  The 
Sault  Ste.  Marie  Canal,  although  open  but  two-thirds  of  the 
year,  is  the  channel  of  a  traffic  of  greater  tonnage  than  that 


150       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

which  passes  through  the  Suez  Canal,  and  nearly  all  this  com 
merce  moves  almost  the  whole  length  of  the  Great  Lakes  sys 
tem;  the  chief  ports  being  Duluth,  Chicago,  Detroit,  Cleveland, 
and  Buffalo.  The  transportation  facilities  of  the  Great  Lakes 
were  revolutionized  after  1886,  to  supply  the  needs  of  com 
merce  between  the  East  and  the  newly  developed  lands  of  the 
Middle  West;  the  tonnage  doubled;  wooden  ships  gave  way 
to  steel;  sailing  vessels  yielded  to  steam;  and  huge  docks, 
derricks,  and  elevators,  triumphs  of  mechanical  skill,  were 
constructed.  A  competent  investigator  has  lately  declared 
that  "there  is  probably  in  the  world  to-day  no  place  at  tide 
water  where  ship  plates  can  be  laid  down  for  a  less  price  than 
they  can  be  manufactured  or  purchased  at  the  lake  ports." 

This  rapid  rise  of  the  merchant  marine  of  our  inland 
seas  has  led  to  the  demand  for  deep  water  canals  to  connect 
them  with  the  ocean  road  to  Europe.  When  the  fleets  of  the 
Great  Lakes  plow  the  Atlantic,  and  when  Duluth  and  Chicago 
become  seaports,  the  water  transportation  of  the  Middle  West 
will  have  completed  its  evolution.  The  significance  of  the 
development  of  the  railway  systems  is  not  inferior  to  that  of 
the  great  water  way.  Chicago  has  become  the  greatest  rail 
road  center  of  the  world,  nor  is  there  another  area  of  like 
size  which  equals  this  in  its  railroad  facilities;  all  the  forces 
of  the  nation  intersect  here.  Improved  terminals,  steel  rails, 
better  rolling  stock,  and  consolidation  of  railway  systems 
have  accompanied  the  advance  of  the  people  of  the  Middle 
West. 

This  unparalleled  development  of  transportation  facilities 
measures  the  magnitude  of  the  material  development  of  the 
province.  Its  wheat  and  corn  surplus  supplies  the  deficit  of 
the  rest  of  the  United  States  and  much  of  that  of  Europe. 
Such  is  the  agricultural  condition  of  the  province  of  which 
Monroe  wrote  to  Jefferson,  in  1786,  in  these  words:  "A  great 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST  151 

part  of  the  territory  is  miserably  poor,  especially  that  near 
Lakes  Michigan  and  Erie,  and  that  upon  the  Mississippi  and 
the  Illinois  consists  of  extensive  plains  which  have  not  had, 
from  appearances,  and  will  not  have,  a  single  bush  on  them 
for  ages.  The  districts,  therefore,  within  which  these  fall  will 
never  contain  a  sufficient  number  of  inhabitants  to  entitle  them 
to  membership  in  the  confederacy." 

Minneapolis  and  Duluth  receive  the  spring  wheat  of  the 
northern  prairies,  and  after  manufacturing  great  portions  of 
it  into  flour,  transmit  it  to  Buffalo,  the  eastern  cities,  and  to 
Europe.  Chicago  is  still  the  great  city  of  the  corn  belt,  but 
its  power  as  a  milling  and  wheat  center  has  been  passing  to 
the  cities  that  receive  tribute  from  the  northern  prairies.  It 
lies  in  the  region  of  winter  wheat,  corn,  oats,  and  live  stock. 
Kansas  City,  St.  Louis,  and  Cincinnati  are  the  sister  cities  of 
this  zone,  which  reaches  into  the  grazing  country  of  the  Great 
Plains.  The  meeting  point  of  corn  and  cattle  has  led  to  the 
development  of  the  packing  industries, —  large  business  sys 
tems  that  send  the  beef  and  pork  of  the  region  to  supply  the 
East  and  parts  of  Europe.  The  "  feeding  system "  adopted 
in  Kansas,  Nebraska,  and  Iowa,  whereby  the  stock  is  fattened 
from  the  surplus  corn  of  the  region,  constitutes  a  species  of 
varied  farming  that  has  saved  these  States  from  the  disasters 
of  the  failure  of  a  single  industry,  and  has  been  one  solution 
of  the  economic  life  of  the  transition  belt  between  the  prairies 
and  the  Great  Plains.  Under  a  more  complex  agriculture, 
better  adapted  to  the  various  sections  of  the  State,  and  with 
better  crops,  Kansas  has  become  more  prosperous  and  less  a 
center  of  political  discontent. 

While  this  development  of  the  agricultural  interests  of  the 
Middle  West  has  been  in  progress,  the  exploitation  of  the  pine 
woods  of  the  north  has  furnished  another  contribution  to  the 
commerce  of  the  province.  The  center  of  activity  has  migrated 


152       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

from  Michigan  to  Minnesota,  and  the  lumber  traffic  furnishes 
one  of  the  principal  contributions  to  the  vessels  that  ply  the 
Great  Lakes  and  supply  the  tributary  mills.  As  the  white 
pine  vanishes  before  the  organized  forces  of  exploitation,  the 
remaining  hard  woods  serve  to  establish  factories  in  the  former 
mill  towns.  The  more  fertile  denuded  lands  of  the  north  are 
now  receiving  settlers  who  repeat  the  old  pioneer  life  among 
the  stumps. 

But  the  most  striking  development  in  the  industrial  history 
of  the  Middle  West  in  recent  years  has  been  due  to  the  opening 
up  of  the  iron  mines  of  Lake  Superior.  Even  in  1873  the 
Lake  Superior  ores  furnished  a  quarter  of  the  total  production 
of  American  blast  furnaces.  The  opening  of  the  Gogebic 
mines  in  1884,  and  the  development  of  the  Vermillion  and 
Mesabi  mines  adjacent  to  the  head  of  the  lake,  in  the  early 
nineties,  completed  the  transfer  of  iron  ore  production  to  the 
Lake  Superior  region.  Michigan,  Minnesota,  and  Wisconsin 
together  now  produce  the  ore  for  eighty  per  cent  of  the  pig 
iron  of  the  United  States.  Four-fifths  of  this  great  product 
moves  to  the  ports  on  Lake  Erie  and  the  rest  to  the  manufac 
tories  at  Chicago  and  Milwaukee.  The  vast  steel  and  iron 
industry  that  centers  at  Pittsburgh  and  Cleveland,  with  impor 
tant  outposts  like  Chicago  and  Milwaukee,  is  the  outcome  of  the 
meeting  of  the  coal  of  the  eastern  and  southern  borders  of 
the  province  and  of  Pennsylvania,  with  the  iron  ores  of  the 
north.  The  industry  has  been  systematized  and  consolidated 
by  a  few  captains  of  industry.  Steam  shovels  dig  the  ore 
from  many  of  the  Mesabi  mines;  gravity  roads  carry  it  to 
the  docks  and  to  the  ships,  and  huge  hoisting  and  carrying 
devices,  built  especially  for  the  traffic,  unload  it  for  the  rail 
road  and  the  furnace.  Iron  and  coal  mines,  transportation 
fleets,  railroad  systems,  and  iron  manufactories  are  concen 
trated  in  a  few  corporations,  principally  the  United  States 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST 


153 


Steel  Corporation.  The  world  has  never  seen  such  a  consoli 
dation  of  capital  and  so  complete  a  systematization  of  economic 
processes. 

Such  is  the  economic  appearance  of  the  Middle  West  a  cen 
tury  after  the  pioneers  left  the  frontier  village  of  Pittsburgh  and 
crossed  the  Ohio  into  the  forests.  De  Tocqueville  exclaimed, 
with  reason,  in  1833 :  "  This  gradual  and  continuous  progress 
of  the  European  race  toward  the  Rocky  Mountains  has  the 
solemnity  of  a  providential  event.  It  is  like  a  deluge  of 
men,  rising  unabatedly,  and  driven  daily  onward  by  the  hand 
of  God." 

The  ideals  of  the  Middle  West  began  in  the  log  huts  set  in 
the  midst  of  the  forest  a  century  ago.  While  his  horizon  was 
still  bounded  by  the  clearing  that  his  ax  had  made,  the  pioneer 
dreamed  of  continental  conquests.  The  vastness  of  the  wilder 
ness  kindled  his  imagination.  His  vision  saw  beyond  the  dank 
swamp  at  the  edge  of  the  great  lake  to  the  lofty  buildings  and 
the  jostling  multitudes  of  a  mighty  city;  beyond  the  rank, 
grass-clad  prairie  to  the  seas  of  golden  grain;  beyond  the 
harsh  life  of  the  log  hut  and  the  sod  house  to  the  home  of  his 
children,  where  should  dwell  comfort  and  the  higher  things  of 
life,  though  they  might  not  be  for  him.  The  men  and  women 
who  made  the  Middle  West  were  idealists,  and  they  had  the 
power  of  will  to  make  their  dreams  come  true.  Here,  also, 
were  the  pioneer's  traits, —  individual  activity,  inventiveness, 
and  competition  for  the  prizes  of  the  rich  province  that  awaited 
exploitation  under  freedom  and  equality  of  opportunity.  He 
honored  the  man  whose  eye  was  the  quickest  and  whose  grasp 
was  the  strongest  in  this  contest:  it  was  "every  one  for  him 
self." 

The  early  society  of  the  Middle  West  was  not  a  complex,  f 
highly    differentiated    and    organized    society.     Almost   every 
family  was  a  self-sufficing  unit,  and  liberty  and  equality  flour- 


154       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


ished  in  the  frontier  periods  of  the  Middle  West  as  per 
haps  never  before  in  history.  American  democracy  came  from 
the  forest,  and  its  destiny  drove  it  to  material  conquests;  but 
the  materialism  of  the  pioneer  was  not  the  dull  contented 
materialism  of  an  old  and  fixed  society.  Both  native  settler 
and  European  immigrant  saw  in  this  free  and  competitive 
movement  of  the  frontier  the  chance  to  break  the  bondage  of 
social  rank,  and  to  rise  to  a  higher  plane  of  existence.  The 
pioneer  was  passionately  desirous  to  secure  for  himself  and 
for  his  family  a  favorable  place  in  the  midst  of  these  large 
and  free  but  vanishing  opportunities.  It  took  a  century  for 
this  society  to  fit  itself  into  the  conditions  of  the  whole  prov 
ince.  Little  by  little,  nature  pressed  into  her  mold  the  plastic 
pioneer  life.  The  Middle  West,  yesterday  a  pioneer  province, 
is  to-day  the  field  of  industrial  resources  and  systematization 
so  vast  that  Europe,  alarmed  for  her  industries  in  competi 
tion  with  this  new  power,  is  discussing  the  policy  of  forming 
protective  alliances  among  the  nations  of  the  continent.  Into 
this  region  flowed  the  great  forces  of  modern  capitalism. 
Indeed,  the  region  itself  furnished  favorable  conditions  for 
the  creation  of  these  forces,  and  trained  many  of  the  famous 
American  industrial  leaders.  The  Prairies,  the  Great  Plains, 
and  the  Great  Lakes  furnished  new  standards  of  industrial 
measurement.  From  this  society,  seated  amidst  a  wealth  of 
material  advantages,  and  breeding  individualism,  energetic 
competition,  inventiveness,  and  spaciousness  of  design,  came 
the  triumph  of  the  strongest.  The  captains  of  industry  arose 
and  seized  on  nature's  gifts.  Struggling  with  one  another, 
increasing  the  scope  of  their  ambitions  as  the  largeness  of  the 
resources  and  the  extent  of  the  fields  of  activity  revealed 
themselves,  they  were  forced  to  accept  the  natural  conditions 
of  a  province  vast  in  area  but  simple  in  structure.  Compe 
tition  grew  into  consolidation.  On  the  Pittsburgh  border  of 


THE  MIDDLE  WEST  155 

the  Middle  West  the  completion  of  the  process  is  most  clearly 
seen.  On  the  prairies  of  Kansas  stands  the  Populist,  a  sur 
vival  of  the  pioneer,  striving  to  adjust  present  conditions  to 
his  old  ideals. 

The  ideals  of  equality,  freedom  of  opportunity,  faith  in  the 
common  man  are  deep  rooted  in  all  the  Middle  West.  The 
frontier  stage,  through  which  each  portion  passed,  left  abiding 
traces  on  the  older,  as  well  as  on  the  newer,  areas  of  the  prov 
ince.  Nor  were  these  ideals  limited  to  the  native  American 
settlers:  Germans  and  Scandinavians  who  poured  into  the 
Middle  West  sought  the  country  with  like  hopes  and  like  faith. 
These  facts  must  be  remembered  in  estimating  the  effects  of 
'the  economic  transformation  of  the  province  upon  its  democ 
racy.  The  peculiar  democracy  of  the  frontier  has  passed 
away  with  the  conditions  that  produced  it;  but  the  democratic 
aspirations  remain.  They  are  held  with  passionate  determi 
nation. 

The  task  of  the  Middle  West  is  that  of  adapting  democ 
racy  to  the  vast  economic  organization  of  the  present.  This 
region  which  has  so  often  needed  the  reminder  that  big 
ness  is  not  greatness,  may  yet  show  that  its  training  has  pro 
duced  the  power  to  reconcile  popular  government  and  culture 
with  the  huge  industrial  society  of  the  modern  world.  The 
democracies  of  the  past  have  been  small  communities,  under 
simple  and  primitive  economic  conditions.  At  bottom  the 
problem  is  how  to  reconcile  real  greatness  with  bigness. 

It  is  important  that  the  Middle  West  should  accomplish  this; 
the  future  of  the  Republic  is  with  her.  Politically  she  is 
dominant,  as  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  six  out  of  seven  of 
the  Presidents  elected  since  1860  have  come  from  her  borders. 
Twenty-six  million  people  live  in  the  Middle  West  as  against 
twenty-one  million  in  New  England  and  the  Middle  States 
together,  and  the  Middle  West  has  indefinite  capacity  for 


156       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

growth.  The  educational  forces  are  more  democratic  than 
in  the  East,  and  the  Middle  West  has  twice  as  many  students 
(if  we  count  together  the  common  school,  secondary,  and  colle 
giate  attendance),  as  have  New  England  and  the  Middle  States 
combined.  Nor  is  this  educational  system,  as  a  whole,  inferior 
to  that  of  the  Eastern  States.  State  universities  crown  the 
public  school  system  in  every  one  of  these  States  of  the 
Middle  West,  and  rank  with  the  universities  of  the  seaboard, 
while  private  munificence  has  furnished  others  on  an  unex 
ampled  scale.  The  public  and  private  art  collections  of 
Pittsburgh,  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  and  other  cities  vie  with  those  of 
the  seaboard.  "World's  fairs,"  with  their  important  popular 
educational  influences,  have  been  held  at  Chicago,  Omaha, 
and  Buffalo;  and  the  next  of  these  national  gatherings  is  to 
be  at  St.  Louis.  There  is  throughout  the  Middle  West  a  vigor 
and  a  mental  activity  among  the  common  people  that  bode  well 
for  its  future.  If  the  task  of  reducing  the  Province  of  the 
Lake  and  Prairie  Plains  to  the  uses  of  civilization  should  for 
a  time  overweigh  art  and  literature,  and  even  high  political 
and  social  ideals,  it  would  not  be  surprising.  But  if  the  ideals 
of  the  pioneers  shall  survive  the  inundation  of  material  suc 
cess,  we  may  expect  to  see  in  the  Middle  West  the  rise  of  a 
highly  intelligent  society  where  culture  shall  be  reconciled 
with  democracy  in  the  large. 


V 

THE  OHIO  VALLEY  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY* 

In  a  notable  essay  Professor  Josiah  Royce  has  asserted  the 
salutary  influence  of  a  highly  organized  provincial  life  in 
order  to  counteract  certain  evils  arising  from  the  tremendous 
development  of  nationalism  in  our  own  day.  Among  these 
evils  he  enumerates:  first,  the  frequent  changes  of  dwelling 
place,  whereby  the  community  is  in  danger  of  losing  the 
well-knit  organization  of  a  common  life;  second,  the  tend 
ency  to  reduce  variety  in  national  civilization,  to  assimilate 
all  to  a  common  type  and  thus  to  discourage  individuality,  and 
produce  a  "remorseless  mechanism  —  vast,  irrational;"  third, 
the  evils  arising  from  the  fact  that  waves  of  emotion,  the  pas 
sion  of  the  mob,  tend  in  our  day  to  sweep  across  the  nation. 

Against  these  surges  of  national  feeling  Professor  Royce 
would  erect  dikes  in  the  form  of  provincialism,  the  resist 
ance  of  separate  sections  each  with  its  own  traditions,  beliefs 
and  aspirations.  "  Our  national  unities  have  grown  so  vast, 
our  forces  of  social  consolidation  so  paramount,  the  result 
ing  problems,  conflicts,  evils,  have  become  so  intensified," 
he  says,  that  we  must  seek  in  the  province  renewed  strength, 
usefulness  and  beauty  of  American  life. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  this  philosopher's  appeal  for 
a  revival  of  sectionalism,  on  a  higher  level,  in  order  to  check 
the  tendencies  to  a  deadening  uniformity  of  national  con- 

1  An  address  before  the  Ohio  Valley  Historical  Association,  October 
16,  1909. 

157 


158       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

solidation  (and  to  me  this  appeal,  under  the  limitations 
which  he  gives  it,  seems  warranted  by  the  conditions)  — it  is 
certainly  true  that  in  the  history  of  the  United  States  section 
alism  holds  a  place  too  little  recognized  by  the  historians. 

By  sectionalism  I  do  not  mean  the  struggle  between  North 
and  South  which  culminated  in  the  Civil  War.  That  extreme 
and  tragic  form  of  sectionalism  indeed  has  almost  engrossed 
the  attention  of  historians,  and  it  is,  no  doubt,  the  most  strik 
ing  and  painful  example  of  the  phenomenon  in  our  history. 
But  there  are  older,  and  perhaps  in  the  long  run  more  endur 
ing  examples  of  the  play  of  sectional  forces  than  the  slavery 
struggle,  and  there  are  various  sections  besides  North  and 
South. 

Indeed,  the  United  States  is,  in  size  and  natural  resources, 
an  empire,  a  collection  of  potential  nations,  rather  than  a 
single  nation.  It  is  comparable  in  area  to  Europe.  If  the 
coast  of  California  be  placed  along  the  coast  of  Spain,  Charles 
ton,  South  Carolina,  would  fall  near  Constantinople;  the 
northern  shores  of  Lake  Superior  would  touch  the  Baltic,  and 
New  Orleans  would  lie  in  southern  Italy.  Within  this  vast 
empire  there  are  geographic  provinces,  separate  in  physical 
conditions,  into  which  American  colonization  has  flowed,  and 
in  each  of  which  a  special  society  has  developed,  with  an 
economic,  political  and  social  life  of  its  own.  Each  of  these 
provinces,  or  sections,  has  developed  its  own  leaders,  who  in 
the  public  life  of  the  nation  have  voiced  the  needs  of  their 
section,  contended  with  the  representatives  of  other  sections, 
and  arranged  compromises  between  sections  in  national  legis 
lation  and  policy,  almost  as  ambassadors  from  separate  coun 
tries  in  a  European  congress  might  make  treaties. 

Between  these  sections  commercial  relations  have  sprung 
up,  and  economic  combinations  and  contests  may  be  traced 
by  the  student  who  looks  beneath  the  surface  of  our  national 


THE  OHIO  VALLEY  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY      159 

life  to  the  actual  grouping  of  States  in  congressional  votes  on 
tariff,  internal  improvement,  currency  and  banking,  and  all 
the  varied  legislation  in  the  field  of  commerce.  American 
industrial  life  is  the  outcome  of  the  combinations  and  con 
tests  of  groups  of  States  in  sections.  And  the  intellectual,  the 
spiritual  life  of  the  nation  is  the  result  of  the  interplay  of 
the  sectional  ideals,  fundamental  assumptions  and  emotions. 

In  short,  the  real  federal  aspect  of  the  nation,  if  we  pene 
trate  beneath  constitutional  forms  to  the  deeper  currents  of 
social,  economic  and  political  life,  will  be  found  to  lie  in  the 
relation  of  sections  and  nation,  rather  than  in  the  relation 
of  States  and  nation.  Recently  ex-secretary  Root  emphasized 
the  danger  that  the  States,  by  neglecting  to  fulfil  their  duties, 
might  fall  into  decay,  while  the  national  government  engrossed 
their  former  power.  But  even  if  the  States  disappeared  alto 
gether  as  effective  factors  in  our  national  life,  the  sections 
might,  in  my  opinion,  gain  from  that  very  disappearance  a 
strength  and  activity  that  would  prove  effective  limitations 
upon  the  nationalizing  process. 

Without  pursuing  the  interesting  speculation,  I  may  note 
as  evidence  of  the  development  of  sectionalism,  the  various 
gatherings  of  business  men,  religious  denominations  and  edu 
cational  organizations  in  groups  of  States.  Among  the  signs 
of  growth  of  a  healthy  provincialism  is  the  formation  of  sec 
tional  historical  societies.  While  the  American  Historical 
Association  has  been  growing  vigorously  and  becoming  a  gen 
uine  gathering  of  historical  students  from  all  parts  of  the 
nation,  there  have  also  arisen  societies  in  various  sections  to 
deal  with  the  particular  history  of  the  groups  of  States.  In 
part  this  is  due  to  the  great  distances  which  render  attendance 
difficult  upon  the  meetings  of  the  national  body  to-day,  but 
we  would  be  short-sighted,  indeed,  who  failed  to  perceive  in 
the  formation  of  the  Pacific  Coast  Historical  Association,  the 


160       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Association,  and  the  Ohio  Valley 
Historical  Association,  for  example,  genuine  and  spontaneous 
manifestations  of  a  sectional  consciousness. 

These  associations  spring  in  large  part  from  the  recogni 
tion  in  each  of  a  common  past,  a  common  body  of  experi 
ences,  traditions,  institutions  and  ideals.  It  is  not  necessary 
now  to  raise  the  question  whether  all  of  these  associations  are 
based  on  a  real  community  of  historical  interest,  whether  there 
are  overlapping  areas,  whether  new  combinations  may  not  be 
made?  They  are  at  least  substantial  attempts  to  find  a  com 
mon  sectional  unity,  and  out  of  their  interest  in  the  past  of 
the  section,  increasing  tendencies  to  common  sectional  ideas 
and  policies  are  certain  to  follow.  I  do  not  mean  to  prophesy 
any  disruptive  tendency  in  American  life  by  the  rejuvenation 
of  sectional  self-consciousness;  but  I  do  mean  to  assert  that 
American  life  will  be  enriched  and  safe-guarded  by  the  devel 
opment  of  the  greater  variety  of  interest,  purposes  and  ideals 
which  seem  to  be  arising.  A  measure  of  local  concentration 
seems  necessary  to  produce  healthy,  intellectual  and  moral 
life.  The  spread  of  social  forces  over  too  vast  an  area  makes 
for  monotony  and  stagnation. 

Let  us,  then,  raise  the  question  of  how  far  the  Ohio  Valley 
has  had  a  part  of  its  own  in  the  making  of  the  nation.  I 
have  not  the  temerity  to  attempt  a  history  of  the  Valley  in 
the  brief  compass  of  this  address.  Nor  am  I  confident  of 
my  ability  even  to  pick  out  the  more  important  features  of 
its  history  in  our  common  national  life.  But  I  venture  to  put 
the  problem,  to  state  some  familiar  facts  from  the  special  point 
of  view,  with  the  hope  of  arousing  interest  in  the  theme  among 
the  many  students  who  are  advancing  the  science  of  history  in 
this  section. 

To  the  physiographer  the  section  is  made  up  of  the  province 
of  the  Alleghany  Plateaus  and  the  southern  portion  of  the 


THE  OHIO  VALLEY  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY      161 

Prairie  Plains.  In  it  are  found  rich  mineral  deposits  which 
are  changing  the  life  of  the  section  and  of  the  nation. 
Although  you  reckon  in  your  membership  only  the  states  that 
touch  the  Ohio  River,  parts  of  those  states  are,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  their  social  origins,  more  closely  connected 
with  the  Northwest  on  the  Lake  Plains,  than  with  the  Ohio 
Valley;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Tennessee  Valley,  though 
it  sweeps  far  toward  the  Lower  South,  and  only  joins  the  Ohio 
at  the  end  of  its  course,  has  been  through  much  of  the  his 
tory  of  the  region  an  essential  part  of  this  society.  Together 
these  rivers  made  up  the  "  Western  World  "  of  the  pioneers  of 
the  Revolutionary  era;  the  "Western  Waters"  of  the  back 
woodsmen. 

But,  after  all,  the  unity  of  the  section  and  its  place  in  his 
tory  were  determined  by  the  "  beautiful  river,"  as  the  French 
explorers  called  it  —  the  Ohio,  which  pours  its  flood  for  over 
a  thousand  miles,  a  great  highway  to  the  West;  a  historic 
artery  of  commerce,  a  wedge  of  advance  between  powerful 
Indian  confederacies,  and  rival  European  nations,  to  the  Mis 
sissippi  Valley;  a  home  for  six  mighty  States,  now  in  the  heart 
of  the  nation,  rich  in  material  wealth,  richer  in  the  history 
of  American  democracy;  a  society  that  holds  a  place  midway 
between  the  industrial  sections  of  the  seaboard  and  the  plains 
and  prairies  of  the  agricultural  West;  between  the  society  that 
formed  later  along  the  levels  about  the  Great  Lakes,  and  the 
society  that  arose  in  the  Lower  South  on  the  plains  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  Alleghanies  bound  it  on  the  east,  the 
Mississippi  on  the  west.  At  the  forks  of  the  great  river  lies 
Pittsburgh,  the  historic  gateway  to  the  West,  the  present  symbol 
and  embodiment  of  the  age  of  steel,  the  type  of  modern  indus 
trialism.  Near  its  western  border  is  St.  Louis,  looking  toward 
the  Prairies,  the  Great  Plains  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the 
land  into  which  the  tide  of  modern  colonization  turns. 


162       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Between  these  old  cities,  for  whose  sites  European  nations 
contended,  stand  the  cities  whose  growth  preeminently  rep 
resents  the  Ohio  valley;  Cincinnati,  the  historic  queen  of  the 
river;  Louisville,  the  warder  of  the  falls;  the  cities  of  the 
"Old  National  Road,"  Columbus,  Indianapolis;  the  cities  of 
the  Blue  Grass  lands,  which  made  Kentucky  the  goal  of  the 
pioneers;  and  the  cities  of  that  young  commonwealth,  whom 
the  Ohio  river  by  force  of  its  attraction  tore  away  from  an 
uncongenial  control  by  the  Old  Dominion,  and  joined  to  the 
social  section  where  it  belonged. 

The  Ohio  Valley  is,  therefore,  not  only  a  commercial  high 
way,  it  is  a  middle  kingdom  between  the  East  and  the  West, 
between  the  northern  area,  which  was  occupied  by  a  greater 
New  England  and  emigrants  from  northern  Europe,  and  the 
southern  area  of  the  "  Cotton  Kingdom."  As  Pennsylvania 
and  New  York  constituted  the  Middle  Region  in  our  earlier 
history,  between  New  England  and  the  seaboard  South,  so 
the  Ohio  Valley  became  the  Middle  Region  of  a  later  time. 
In  its  position  as  a  highway  and  a  Middle  Region  are  found 
the  keys  to  its  place  in  American  history. 

From  the  beginning  the  Ohio  Valley  seems  to  have  been  a 
highway  for  migration,  and  the  home  of  a  culture  of  its 
own.  The  sciences  of  American  archeology  and  ethnology 
are  too  new  to  enable  us  to  speak  with  confidence  upon  the 
origins  and  earlier  distribution  of  the  aborigines,  but  it  is 
at  least  clear  that  the  Ohio  river  played  an  important  part 
in  the  movements  of  the  earlier  men  in  America,  and  that 
the  mounds  of  the  valley  indicate  a  special  type  of  develop 
ment  intermediate  between  that  of  the  northern  hunter  folk, 
and  the  pueblo  building  races  of  the  south.  This  dim  and 
yet  fascinating  introduction  to  the  history  of  the  Ohio  will 
afford  ample  opportunity  for  later  students  of  the  relations 


THE  OHIO  VALLEY  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY      163 

between  geography  and  population  to  make  contributions  to 
our  history. 

The  French  explorers  saw  the  river,  but  failed  to  grasp  its 
significance  as  a  strategic  line  in  the  conquest  of  the  West. 
Entangled  in  the  water  labyrinth  of  the  vast  interior,  and 
kindled  with  aspirations  to  reach  the  "  Sea  of  the  West,"  their 
fur  traders  and  explorers  pushed  their  way  through  the  for 
ests  of  the  North  and  across  the  plains  of  the  South,  from  river 
to  lake,  from  lake  to  river,  until  they  met  the  mountains  of  the 
West.  But  while  they  were  reaching  the  upper  course  of 
the  Missouri  and  the  Spanish  outposts  of  Santa  Fe,  they  missed 
the  opportunity  to  hold  the  Ohio  Valley,  and  before  France 
could  settle  the  Valley,  the  long  and  attenuated  line  of  French 
posts  in  the  west,  reaching  from  Canada  to  Louisiana,  was 
struck  by  the  advancing  column  of  the  American  backswoods- 
men  in  the  center  by  the  way  of  the  Ohio.  Parkman,  in  whose 
golden  pages  is  written  the  epic  of  the  American  wilderness, 
found  his  hero  in  the  wandering  Frenchman.  Perhaps  because 
he  was  a  New  Englander  he  missed  a  great  opportunity  and 
neglected  to  portray  the  formation  and  advance  of  the  back- 
wood  society  which  was  finally  to  erase  the  traces  of  French 
control  in  the  interior  of  North  America. 

It  is  not  without  significance  in  a  consideration  of  the 
national  aspects  of  the  history  of  the  Ohio  Valley,  that  the 
messenger  of  English  civilization,  who  summoned  the  French 
to  evacuate  the  Valley  and  its  approaches,  and  whose  men 
near  the  forks  of  the  Ohio  fired  the  opening  gun  of  the  world- 
historic  conflict  that  wrought  the  doom  of  New  France  in 
America,  was  George  Washington,  the  first  American  to  win 
a  national  position  in  the  United  States.  The  father  of  his 
country  was  the  prophet  of  the  Ohio  Valley. 

Into  this  dominion,  in  the  next  scene  of  this  drama,  came 


164       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

the  backwoodsmen,  the  men  who  began  the  formation  of  the 
society  of  the  Valley.  I  wish  to  consider  the  effects  of  the 
formation  of  this  society  upon  the  nation.  And  first  let  us 
consider  the  stock  itself. 

The  Ohio  Valley  was  settled,  for  the  most  part  (though 
with  important  exceptions,  especially  in  Ohio),  by  men  of 
the  Upland  South,  and  this  determined  a  large  part  of  its 
influence  in  the  nation  through  a  long  period.  As  the  Ohio 
Valley,  as  a  whole,  was  an  extension  of  the  Upland  South,  so 
the  Upland  South  was,  broadly  speaking,  an  extension  from 
the  old  Middle  Region,  chiefly  from  Pennsylvania.  The  soci 
ety  of  pioneers,  English,  Scotch-Irish,  Germans,  and  other 
nationalities  which  formed  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century  in  the  Great  Valley  of  Pennsylvania  and  its  lateral 
extensions  was  the  nursery  of  the  American  backwoodsmen. 
Between  about  1730  and  the  Revolution,  successive  tides  of 
pioneers  ascended  the  Shenandoah,  occupied  the  Piedmont, 
or  up-country  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  and  received 
recruits  from  similar  peoples  who  came  by  eastward  advances 
from  the  coast  toward  this  Old  West. 

Thus  by  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  new  sec 
tion  had  been  created  in  America,  a  kind  of  peninsula  thrust 
down  from  Pennsylvania  between  the  falls  of  the  rivers  of 
the  South  Atlantic  colonies  on  the  one  side  and  the  Allegheny 
mountains  on  the  other.  Its  population  showed  a  mixture  of 
nationalities  and  religions.  Less  English  than  the  colonial 
coast,  it  was  built  on  a  basis  of  religious  feeling  different 
from  that  of  Puritan  New  England,  and  still  different  from  the 
conservative  Anglicans  of  the  southern  seaboard.  The  Scotch- 
Irish  Presbyterians  with  the  glow  of  the  covenanters;  German 
sectaries  with  serious-minded  devotion  to  one  or  another  of 
a  multiplicity  of  sects,  but  withal  deeply  responsive  to  the 
call  of  the  religious  spirit,  and  the  English  Quakers  all  furnish 


THE  OHIO  VALLEY  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY     165 

a  foundation  of  emotional  responsiveness  to  religion  and  a 
readiness  to  find  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  in  politics  as 
well  as  in  religion.  In  spite  of  the  influence  of  the  backwoods 
in  hampering  religious  organization,  this  upland  society  was 
a  fertile  field  for  tillage  by  such  democratic  and  emotional 
sects  as  the  Baptists,  Methodists  and  the  later  Campbellites, 
as  well  as  by  Presbyterians.  Mr.  Bryce  has  well  characterized 
the  South  as  a  region  of  "high  religious  voltage,"  but  this 
characterization  is  especially  applicable  to  the  Upland  South, 
and  its  colonies  in  the  Ohio  Valley.  It  is  not  necessary  to  as 
sert  that  this  religious  spirit  resulted  in  the  kind  of  conduct  as 
sociated  with  the  religious  life  of  the  Puritans.  What  I  wish 
to  point  out  is  the  responsiveness  of  the  Upland  South  to  emo 
tional  religious  and  political  appeal. 

Besides  its  variety  of  stocks  and  its  religious  sects  respon 
sive  to  emotion,  the  Upland  South  was  intensely  democratic 
and  individualistic.  It  believed  that  government  was  based 
on  a  limited  contract  for  the  benefit  of  the  individual,  and 
it  acted  independently  of  governmental  organs  and  restraints 
with  such  ease  that  in  many  regions  this  was  the  habitual  mode 
of  social  procedure:  voluntary  cooperation  was  more  natural 
to  the  Southern  Uplanders  than  action  through  the  machinery 
of  government,  especially  when  government  checked  rather 
than  aided  their  industrial  and  social  tendencies  and  desires. 
It  was  a  naturally  radical  society.  It  was  moreover  a  rural 
section  not  of  the  planter  or  merchant  type,  but  characterized 
by  the  small  farmer,  building  his  log  cabin  in  the  wilderness, 
raising  a  small  crop  and  a  few  animals  for  family  use.  It 
was  this  stock  which  began  to  pass  into  the  Ohio  Valley  when 
Daniel  Boone,  and  the  pioneers  associated  with  his  name, 
followed  the  "Wilderness  Trace"  from  the  Upland  South  to 
the  Blue  Grass  lands  in  the  midst  of  the  Kentucky  hills,  on  the 
Ohio  river.  In  the  opening  years  of  the  Revolution  these 


166       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

pioneers  were  recruited  by  westward  extensions  from  Pennsyl 
vania  and  West  Virginia.  With  this  colonization  of  the  Ohio 
Valley  begins  a  chapter  in  American  history. 

This  settlement  contributed  a  new  element  to  our  national 
development  and  raised  new  national  problems.  It  took  a 
long  time  for  the  seaboard  South  to  assimilate  the  upland  sec 
tion.  We  cannot  think  of  the  South  as  a  unit  through  much  of 
its  ante-bellum  history  without  doing  violence  to  the  facts. 
The  struggle  between  the  men  of  the  up-country  and  the  men 
of  the  tide-water,  made  a  large  part  of  the  domestic  history 
of  the  "  Old  South."  Nevertheless,  the  Upland  South,  as  slav 
ery  and  cotton  cultivation  extended  westward  from  the  coast, 
gradually  merged  in  the  East.  On  the  other  hand,  its  children, 
who  placed  the  wall  of  the  Alleghanies  between  them  and  the 
East,  gave  thereby  a  new  life  to  the  conditions  and  ideals 
which  were  lost  in  their  former  home.  Nor  was  this  all. 
Beyond  the  mountains  new  conditions,  new  problems,  aroused 
new  ambitions  and  new  social  ideals.  Its  entrance  into  the 
"  Western  World  "  was  a  tonic  to  this  stock.  Its  crossing  put 
new  fire  into  its  veins  —  fires  of  militant  expansion,  creative 
social  energy,  triumphant  democracy.  A  new  section  was 
added  to  the  American  nation,  a  new  element  was  infused  into 
the  combination  which  we  call  the  United  States,  a  new  flavor 
was  given  to  the  American  spirit. 

We  may  next  rapidly  note  some  of  the  results.  First,  let 
us  consider  the  national  effects  of  the  settlement  of  this 
new  social  type  in  the  Ohio  Valley  upon  the  expansion  and 
diplomacy  of  the  nation.  Almost  from  the  first  the  Ohio 
valley  had  constituted  the  problem  of  westward  expansion.  It 
was  the  entering  wedge  to  the  possession  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  and,  although  reluctantly,  the  Eastern  colonies  and 
then  the  Eastern  States  were  compelled  to  join  in  the  struggle 
first  to  possess  the  Ohio,  then  to  retain  it,  and  finally  to  enforce 


THE  OHIO  VALLEY  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY      167 

its  demand  for  the  possession  of  the  whole  Mississippi  Valley 
and  the  basin  of  the  Great  Lakes  as  a  means  of  outlet  for  its 
crops  and  of  defense  for  its  settlements.  The  part  played  by 
the  pioneers  of  the  Ohio  Valley  as  a  flying  column  of  the 
nation,  sent  across  the  mountains  and  making  a  line  of  advance 
between  hostile  Indians  and  English  on  the  north,  and  hostile 
Indians  and  Spaniards  on  the  south,  is  itself  too  extensive  a 
theme  to  be  more  than  mentioned. 

Here  in  historic  Kentucky,  in  the  State  which  was  the  home 
of  George  Rogers  Clark  it  is  not  necessary  to   dwell  upon 
his   clear   insight   and   courage   in   carrying   American   arms 
into  the  Northwest.     From  the  first,  Washington  also  grasped 
the   significance  of  the  Ohio  Valley  as  a  "  rising  empire," 
whose  population  and  trade  were  essential  to  the  nation,  but 
which  found  its  natural  outlet  down  the  Mississippi,  where 
Spain  blocked  the  river,  and  which  was  in  danger  of  withdraw 
ing  from  the  weak  confederacy.     The  intrigues  of  England 
to  attract  the  Valley  to  herself  and  those  of  Spain  to  add  the 
setlements  to  the  Spanish  Empire,  the  use  of  the  Indians  by 
these  rivals,  and  the  efforts  of  France  to  use  the  pioneers  of 
Kentucky  to  win  New  Orleans  and  the  whole  Valley  between 
the  Alleghanies  and  the  Rocky  Mountains  for  a  revived  French 
Empire  in  America,   are  among  the  fascinating  chapters  of 
American,  as  well  as  of  Ohio  Valley,  history.     This  position 
of  the  Valley  explains  much  of  the  Indian  wars,  the  foreign 
relations,  and,  indirectly,  the  domestic  politics  of  the  period 
from  the  Revolution  to  the  purchase  of  Louisiana.     Indeed, 
the  purchase  was  in  large  measure  due  to  the  pressure  of 
the  settlers  of  the  Ohio  Valley  to  secure  this  necessary  outlet. 
It  was  the  Ohio  Valley  which  forced  the  nation  away  from 
a  narrow  colonial  attitude  into  its  career  as  a  nation  among 
other   nations   with   an   adequate   physical    basis    for    future 
growth. 


168       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

In  this  development  of  a  foreign  policy  in  connection  with 
the  Ohio  Valley,  we  find  the  germ  of  the  Monroe  doctrine, 
and  the  beginnings  of  the  definite  independence  of  the  United 
States  from  the  state  system  of  the  Old  World,  the  beginning, 
in  fact,  of  its  career  as  a  world  power.  This  expansive  impulse 
went  on  into  the  War  of  1812,  a  war  which  was  in  no  inconsid 
erable  degree,  the  result  of  the  aggressive  leadership  of  a  group 
of  men  from  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  and  especially  of  the 
daring  and  lofty  demands  of  Henry  Clay,  who  even  thus  early 
voiced  the  spirit  of  the  Ohio  Valley.  That  in  this  war  William 
Henry  Harrison  and  the  Kentucky  troops  achieved  the  real 
conquest  of  the  northwest  province  and  Andrew  Jackson  with 
his  Tennesseeans  achieved  the  real  conquest  of  the  Gulf  Plains, 
is  in  itself  abundant  evidence  of  the  part  played  in  the  expan 
sion  of  the  nation  by  the  section  which  formed  on  the  Ohio 
and  its  tributaries.  Nor  was  this  the  end  of  the  process,  for 
the  annexation  of  Texas  and  the  Pacific  Coast  was  in  a  very 
real  sense  only  an  aftermath  of  the  same  movement  of  expan 
sion. 

While  the  Ohio  Valley  was  leading  the  way  to  the  building 
of  a  greater  nation,  it  was  also  the  field  wherein  was  formed 
an  important  contribution  of  the  United  States  to  political 
institutions.  By  this  I  mean  what  George  Bancroft  has  well 
called  "  federal  colonial  system,"  that  is,  our  system  of  terri 
tories  and  new  States.  It  is  a  mistake  to  attribute  this  sys 
tem  to  the  Ordinance  of  1787  and  to  the  leadership  of  New 
England.  It  was  in  large  measure  the  work  of  the  com 
munities  of  the  Ohio  Valley  who  wrought  out  the  essentials 
of  the  system  for  themselves,  and  by  their  attitude  imposed 
it,  of  necessity,  upon  the  nation.  The  great  Ordinance  only 
perfected  the  system.2 

2  See  F.  J.  Turner,  "  New  States  West  of  the  Alleghanies,"  American 
Historical  Review,  i.  pp.  70  ff. 


THE  OHIO  VALLEY  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY      169 

Under  the  belief  that  all  men  going  into  vacant  lands  have 
the  right  to  shape  their  own  political  institutions,  the  rifle 
men  of  western  Virginia,  western  Pennsylvania,  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee,  during  the  Revolution,  protested  against  the 
rule  of  governments  east  of  the  mountains,  and  asserted  with 
manly  independence  their  right  to  self-government.  But  it  is 
significant  that  in  making  this  assertion,  they  at  the  same  time 
petitioned  congress  to  admit  them  to  the  sisterhood  of  States. 
Even  when  leaders  like  Wilkinson  were  attempting  to  induce 
Kentucky  to  act  as  an  independent  nation,  the  national  spirit 
of  the  people  as  a  whole  led  them  to  delay  until  at  last  they 
found  themselves  a  State  of  the  new  Union.  This  recognition 
of  the  paramount  authority  of  congress  and  this  demand  for 
self-government  under  that  authority,  constitute  the  founda 
tions  of  the  federal  territorial  system,  as  expressed  in  congres 
sional  resolutions,  worked  out  tentatively  in  Jefferson's 
Ordinance  of  1784,  and  finally  shaped  in  the  Ordinance  of 
1787. 

Thus  the  Ohio  Valley  was  not  only  the  area  to  which  this 
system  was  applied,  but  it  was  itself  instrumental  in  shaping 
the  system  by  its  own  demands  and  by  the  danger  that  too 
rigorous  an  assertion  of  either  State  or  national  power  over 
these  remote  communities  might  result  in  their  loss  to  the 
nation.  The  importance  of  the  result  can  hardly  be  over 
estimated.  It  insured  the  peaceful  and  free  development  of 
the  great  West  and  gave  it  political  organization  not  as  the 
outcome  of  wars  of  hostile  States,  nor  by  arbitrary  govern 
ment  by  distant  powers,  but  by  territorial  government  com 
bined  with  large  local  autonomy.  These  governments  in  turn 
were  admitted  as  equal  States  of  the  Union.  By  this  peace 
ful  process  of  colonization  a  whole  continent  has  been  filled 
with  free  and  orderly  commonwealths  so  quietly,  so  naturally, 
that  we  can  only  appreciate  the  profound  significance  of  the 


170       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

process  by  contrasting  it  with  the  spread  of  European  nations 
through  conquest  and  oppression. 

Next  let  me  invite  your  attention  to  the  part  played  by 
the  Ohio  Valley  in  the  economic  legislation  which  shaped  our 
history  in  the  years  of  the  making  of  the  nation  between 
the  War  of  1812  and  the  rise  of  the  slavery  struggle.  It 
needs  but  slight  reflection  to  discover  that  in  the  area  in  ques 
tion,  the  men  and  measures  of  the  Ohio  Valley  held  the  balance 
of  power  and  set  the  course  of  our  national  progress.  The 
problems  before  the  country  at  that  time  were  problems  of 
internal  development:  the  mode  of  dealing  with  the  public 
domain;  the  building  of  roads  and  digging  of  canals  for  the 
internal  improvement  of  a  nation  which  was  separated  into 
East  and  West  by  the  Allegheny  Mountains;  the  formation  of 
a  tariff  system  for  the  protection  of  home  industries  and  to 
supply  a  market  for  the  surplus  of  the  West  which  no  longer 
found  an  outlet  in  warring  Europe;  the  framing  of  a  banking 
and  currency  system  which  should  meet  the  needs  of  the  new 
interstate  commerce  produced  by  the  rise  of  the  western  sur 
plus. 

In  the  Ohio  Valley,  by  the  initiative  of  Ohio  Valley  men, 
and  often  against  the  protest  of  Eastern  sections,  the  public 
land  policy  was  developed  by  laws  which  subordinated  the 
revenue  idea  to  the  idea  of  the  upbuilding  of  a  democracy 
of  small  landholders.  The  squatters  of  the  Ohio  Valley  forced 
the  passage  of  preemption  laws  and  these  laws  in  their  turn 
led  to  the  homestead  agitation.  There  has  been  no  single 
element  more  influential  in  shaping  American  democracy  and 
its  ideals  than  this  land  policy.  And  whether  the  system  be 
regarded  as  harmful  or  helpful,  there  can  be,  I  think,  no 
doubt  that  it  was  the  outcome  of  conditions  imposed  by  the 
settlers  of  the  Ohio  Valley. 

When  one  names  the  tariff,  internal  improvements  and  the 


THE  OHIO  VALLEY  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY      171 

bank,  he  is  bound  to  add  the  title  "  The  American  System," 
and  to  think  of  Henry  Clay  of  Kentucky,  the  captivating 
young  statesman,  who  fashioned  a  national  policy,  raised 
issues  and  disciplined  a  party  to  support  them  and  who  finally 
imposed  the  system  upon  the  nation.  But,  however  clearly 
we  recognize  the  genius  and  originality  of  Henry  Clay  as  a 
political  leader;  however  we  recognize  that  he  has  a  national 
standing  as  a  constructive  statesman,  we  must  perceive,  if  we 
probe  the  matter  deeply  enough,  that  his  policy  and  his  power 
grew  oat  of  the  economic  and  social  conditions  of  the  people 
who  needs  he  voiced  —  the  people  of  the  Ohio  Valley.  It 
was  the  fact  that  in  this  period  they  had  begun  to  create  an 
agricultural  surplus,  which  made  the  necessity  for  this  legis 
lation. 

The  nation  has  recently  celebrated  the  one  hundredth  anni 
versary  of  Fulton's  invention  of  the  steamboat,  and  the  Hud 
son  river  has  been  ablaze  in  his  honor;  but  in  truth  it  is  on 
the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  that  the  fires  of  celebration 
should  really  burn  in  honor  of  Fulton,  for  the  historic  signifi 
cance  to  the  United  States  of  the  invention  of  the  steamboat 
does  not  lie  in  its  use  on  Eastern  rivers;  not  even  in  its  use  on 
the  ocean;  for  our  own  internal  commerce  carried  in  our  own 
ships  has  had  a  vaster  influence  upon  our  national  life  than 
has  our  foreign  commerce.  And  this  internal  commerce  was 
at  first,  and  for  many  years,  the  commerce  of  the  Ohio  Valley 
carried  by  way  of  the  Mississippi.  When  Fulton's  steamboat 
was  applied  in  1811  to  the  Western  Waters,  it  became  possible 
to  develop  agriculture  and  to  get  the  Western  crops  rapidly 
and  cheaply  to  a  market.  The  result  was  a  tremendous  growth 
in  the  entire  Ohio  Valley,  but  this  invention  did  not  solve  the 
problem  of  cheap  supplies  of  Eastern  manufactures,  nor  sat 
isfy  the  desire  of  the  West  to  build  up  its  own  factories  in 
order  to  consume  its  own  products.  The  Ohio  Valley  had 


172       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

seen  the  advantage  of  home  markets,  as  her  towns  grew  up 
with  their  commerce  and  manufacturers  close  to  the  rural 
regions.  Lands  had  increased  in  value  in  proportion  to  their 
nearness  to  these  cities,  and  crops  were  in  higher  demand 
near  them.  Thus  Henry  Clay  found  a  whole  section  standing 
behind  him  when  he  demanded  a  protective  tariff  to  create 
home  markets  on  a  national  scale,  and  when  he  urged  the 
breaking  of  the  Alleghany  barrier  by  a  national  system  of 
roads  and  canals.  If  we  analyse  the  congressional  votes  by 
which  the  tariff  and  internal  improvement  acts  were  passed, 
we  shall  find  that  there  was  an  almost  unbroken  South  against 
them,  a  Middle  Region  largely  for  them,  a  New  England  di 
vided,  and  the  Ohio  Valley  almost  a  unit,  holding  the  bal 
ance  of  power  and  casting  it  in  favor  of  the  American  system. 

The  next  topic  to  which  I  ask  your  attention  is  the  influence 
of  the  Ohio  Valley  in  the  promotion  of  democracy.  On  this 
I  shall,  by  reason  of  lack  of  time,  be  obliged  merely  to  point 
out  that  the  powerful  group  of  Ohio  Valley  States,  which 
sprang  out  of  the  democracy  of  the  backwoods,  and  which 
entered  the  Union  one  after  the  other  with  manhood  suffrage, 
greatly  recruited  the  effective  forces  of  democracy  in  the  Union. 
Not  only  did  they  add  new  recruits,  but  by  their  competitive 
pressure  for  population  they  forced  the  older  States  to  break 
down  their  historic  restraints  upon  the  right  of  voting,  unless 
they  were  to  lose  their  people  to  the  freer  life  of  the  West. 

But  in  the  era  of  Jacksonian  democracy,  Henry  Clay  and 
his  followers  engaged  the  great  Tennesseean  in  a  fierce  polit 
ical  struggle  out  of  which  was  born  the  rival  Whig  and 
Democratic  parties.  This  struggle  was  in  fact  reflective  of 
the  conditions  which  had  arisen  in  the  Ohio  Valley.  As  the 
section  had  grown  in  population  and  wealth,  as  the  trails 
changed  into  roads,  the  cabins  into  well-built  houses,  the 
clearings  into  broad  farms,  the  hamlets  into  towns;  as  barter 


THE  OHIO  VALLEY  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY      173 

became  commerce  and  all  the  modern  processes  of  industrial 
development  began  to  operate  in  this  rising  region,  the  Ohio 
Valley  broke  apart  into  the  rival  interests  of  the  industrial 
forces  (the  town-makers  and  the  business  builders),  on  the 
one  side  and  the  old  rural  democracy  of  the  uplands  on  the 
other.  This  division  was  symbolical  of  national  processes. 
In  the  contest  between  these  forces,  Andrew  Jackson  was  the 
champion  of  the  cause  of  the  upland  democracy.  He 
denounced  the  money  power,  banks  and  the  whole  credit  sys 
tem  and  sounded  a  fierce  tocsin  of  danger  against  the  increas 
ing  influence  of  wealth  in  politics.  Henry  Clay,  on  the  other 
hand,  represented  the  new  industrial  forces  along  the  Ohio. 
It  is  certainly  significant  that  in  the  rivalry  between  the  great 
Whig  of  the  Ohio  Valley  and  the  great  Democrat  of  its  Ten 
nessee  tributary  lay  the  issues  of  American  politics  almost 
until  the  slavery  struggle.  The  responsiveness  of  the  Ohio 
Valley  to  leadership  and  its  enthusiasm  in  action  are  illustrated 
by  the  Harrison  campaign  of  1840;  in  that  "  log  cabin  cam 
paign  "  when  the  Whigs  "  stole  the  thunder  "  of  pioneer  Jack- 
sonian  democracy  for  another  backwoods  hero,  the  Ohio  Val 
ley  carried  its  spirit  as  well  as  its  political  favorite  through 
out  the  nation. 

Meanwhile,  on  each  side  of  the  Ohio  Valley,  other  sections 
were  forming.  New  England  and  the  children  of  New  Eng 
land  in  western  New  York  and  an  increasing  flood  of  German 
immigrants  were  pouring  into  the  Great  Lake  basin  and  the 
prairies,  north  of  the  upland  peoples  who  had  chopped  out 
homes  in  the  forests  along  the  Ohio.  This  section  was  tied 
to  the  East  by  the  Great  Lake  navigation  and  the  Erie  canal, 
it  became  in  fact  an  extension  of  New  England  and  New  York. 
Here  the  Free  Soil  party  found  its  strength  and  New  York 
newspapers  expressed  the  political  ideas.  Although  this  sec 
tion  tried  to  attach  the  Ohio  River  interests  to  itself  by  canals 


174       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

and  later  by  railroads,  it  was  in  reality  for  a  long  time  sepa 
rate  in  its  ideals  and  its  interests  and  never  succeeded  in  dom 
inating  the  Ohio  Valley. 

On  the  south  along  the  Gulf  Plains  there  developed  the 
"Cotton  Kingdom,"  a  Greater  South  with  a  radical  program 
of  slavery  expansion  mapped  out  by  bold  and  aggressive 
leaders.  Already  this  Southern  section  had  attempted  to  estab 
lish  increasing  commercial  relations  with  the  Ohio  Valley. 
The  staple-producing  region  was  a  principal  consumer  of  its 
live  stock  and  food  products.  South  Carolina  leaders  like 
Calhoun  tried  to  bind  the  Ohio  to  the  chariot  of  the  South 
by  the  Cincinnati  and  Charleston  Railroad,  designed  to  make 
an  outlet  for  the  Ohio  Valley  products  to  the  southeast. 
Georgia  in  her  turn  was  a  rival  of  South  Carolina  in  plans 
to  drain  this  commerce  itself.  In  all  of  these  plans  to  con 
nect  the  Ohio  Valley  commercially  with  the  South,  the  po 
litical  object  was  quite  as  prominent  as  the  commercial. 

In  short,  various  areas  were  bidding  for  the  support  of  the 
zone  of  population  along  the  Ohio  River.  The  Ohio  Valley 
recognized  its  old  relationship  to  the  South,  but  its  people 
were  by  no  means  champions  of  slavery.  In  the  southern  por 
tion  of  the  States  north  of  the  Ohio  where  indented  servitude 
for  many  years  opened  a  way  to  a  system  of  semi-slavery, 
there  were  divided  counsels.  Kentucky  also  spoke  with  no 
certain  voice.  As  a  result,  it  is  in  these  regions  that  we  find 
the  stronghold  of  the  compromising  movement  in  the  slavery 
struggle.  Kentucky  furnished  Abraham  Lincoln  to  Illinois, 
and  Jefferson  Davis  to  Mississippi,  and  was  in  reality  the  very 
center  of  the  region  of  adjustment  between  these  rival  inter 
ests.  Senator  Thomas,  of  southern  Illinois,  moved  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise,  and  Henry  Clay  was  the  most  effective 
champion  of  that  compromise,  as  he  was  the  architect  of  the 


THE  OHIO  VALLEY  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY      175 

Compromise  of  1850.  The  Crittenden  compromise  proposals 
on  the  eve  of  the  Civil  War  came  also  from  Kentucky  and 
represent  the  persistence  of  the  spirit  of  Henry  Clay. 

In  a  word,  as  I  pointed  out  in  the  beginning,  the  Ohio  Valley 
was  a  Middle  Region  with  a  strong  national  allegiance,  striv 
ing  to  hold  apart  with  either  hand  the  sectional  combatants 
in  this  struggle.  In  the  cautious  development  of  his  policy 
of  emancipation,  we  may  see  the  profound  influence  of  the 
Ohio  Valley  upon  Abraham  Lincoln  —  Kentucky's  greatest 
son.  No  one  can  understand  his  presidency  without  proper 
appreciation  of  the  deep  influence  of  the  Ohio  Valley,  its  ideals 
and  its  prejudices  upon  America's  original  contribution  to  the 
great  men  of  the  world. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  make  it  clear,  I  trust,  that  the  Ohio 
Valley  has  not  only  a  local  history  worthy  of  study,  a  rich 
heritage  to  its  people,  but  also  that  it  has  been  an  independent 
and  powerful  force  in  shaping  the  development  of  a  nation. 
Of  the  late  history  of  this  Valley,  the  rise  of  its  vast  industrial 
power,  its  far-reaching  commercial  influence,  it  is  not  necessary 
that  I  should  speak.  You  know  its  statesmen  and  their  influ 
ence  upon  our  own  time;  you  know  the  relation  of  Ohio  to 
the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States!  Nor  is  it  neces- 
eary  that  I  should  attempt  to  prophesy  concerning  the  future 
which  the  Ohio  Valley  will  hold  in  the  nation. 

In  that  new  age  of  inland  water  transportation,  which  is 
certain  to  supplement  the  age  of  the  railroad,  there  can  be 
no  more  important  region  than  the  Ohio  Valley.  Let  us  hope 
that  its  old  love  of  democracy  may  endure,  and  that  in  this  sec 
tion,  where  the  first  trans-Alleghany  pioneers  struck  blows 
at  the  forests,  there  may  be  brought  to  blossom  and  to  fruit 
the  ripe  civilization  of  a  people  who  know  that  whatever  the 
glories  of  prosperity  may  be,  there  are  greater  glories  of  the 


176       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

spirit  of  man ;  who  know  that  in  the  ultimate  record  of  history, 
the  place  of  the  Ohio  Valley  will  depend  upon  the  contribution 
which  her  people  and  her  leaders  make  to  the  cause  of  an 
enlightened,  a  cultivated,  a  God-fearing  and  a  free,  as  well  as 
a  comfortable,  democracy. 


VI 

THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  IN  AMERICAN 

HISTORY  *• 

The  rise  of  a  company  of  sympathetic  and  critical  students 
of  history  in  the  South  and  in  the  West  is  bound  to  revolution 
ize  the  perspective  of  American  history.  Already  our  Eastern 
colleagues  are  aware  in  general,  if  not  in  detail,  of  the  impor 
tance  of  the  work  of  this  nation  in  dealing  with  the  vast  interior, 
and  with  the  influence  of  the  West  upon  the  nation.  Indeed, 
I  might  take  as  the  text  for  this  address  the  words  of  one  of 
our  Eastern  historians,  Professor  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  who, 
a  decade  ago,  wrote: 

The  Mississippi  Valley  yields  to  no  region  in 
the  world  in  interest,  in  romance,  and  in  promise 
for  the  future.  Here,  if  anywhere,  is  the  real 
America  —  the  field,  the  theater,  and  the  basis  of 
the  civilization  of  the  Western  World.  The  his 
tory  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  is  the  history  of  the 
United  States;  its  future  is  the  future  of  one  of  the 
most  powerful  of  modern  nations.2 

If  those  of  us  who  have  been  insisting  on  the  importance  of 
our  own  region  are  led  at  times  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
pioneer  for  the  inviting  historical  domain  that  opens  before 

1  Proceedings  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Association  for  1909- 
10.     Reprinted  with  the  permission  of  the  Association. 

2  Harper's  Magazine,  February,  1900,  p.  413. 

177 


178       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

us  to  overstate  the  importance  of  our  subject,  we  may  at  least 
plead  that  we  have  gone  no  farther  than  some  of  our  brethren 
of  the  East;  and  we  may  take  comfort  in  this  declaration  of 
Theodore  Roosevelt: 

The  states  that  have  grown  up  around  the  Great 
Lakes  and  in  the  Valley  of  the  Upper  Mississippi, 
[are]  the  states  which  are  destined  to  be  the  great 
est,  the  richest,  the  most  prosperous  of  all  the  great, 
rich,  and  prosperous  commonwealths  which  go  to 
make  up  the  mightiest  republic  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  These  states  .  .  .  form  the  heart  of  the 
country  geographically,  and  they  will  soon  become 
the  heart  in  population  and  in  political  and  social 
importance.  ...  I  should  be  sorry  to  think  that 
before  these  states  there  loomed  a  future  of  mate 
rial  prosperity  merely.  I  regard  this  section  of 
the  country  as  the  heart  of  true  American  senti 
ment.3 

In  studying  the  history  of  the  whole  Mississippi  Valley, 
therefore,  the  members  of  ^his  Association  are  studying  the 
origins  of  that  portion  of  the  nation  which  is  admitted  by 
competent  Eastern  authorities  to  be  the  section  potentially 
most  influential  in  the  future  of  America.  They  are  also 
studying  the  region  which  has  engaged  the  most  vital  activities 
of  the  whole  nation;  for  the  problems  arising  from  the  exist 
ence  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  whether  of  movement  of  popu 
lation,  diplomacy,  politics,  economic  development,  or  social 
structure,  have  been  fundamental  problems  in  shaping  the 
nation.  It  is  not  a  narrow,  not  even  a  local,  interest  which 

3  Roosevelt,  "  The  Northwest  in  the  Nation,"  in  "  Proceedings  of  the 
Wisconsin  Historical  Society,"  Fortieth  Annual  Meeting,  p.  92. 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  179 

determines  the  mission  of  this  Association.  It  is  nothing  less 
than  the  study  of  the  American  people  in  the  presence  and 
under  the  influence  of  the  vast  spaces,  the  imperial  resources 
of  the  great  interior.  The  social  destiny  of  this  Valley  will 
be  the  social  destiny,  and  will  mark  the  place  in  history,  of 
the  United  States. 

In  a  large  sense,  and  in  the  one  usually  given  to  it  by 
geographers  and  historians,  the  Mississippi  Valley  includes 
the  whole  interior  basin,  a  province  which  drains  into  nearly 
two  thousand  miles  of  navigable  waters  of  the  Mississippi 
itself,  two  thousand  miles  of  the  tawny  flood  of  the  Missouri, 
and  a  thousand  miles  of  the  Ohio  —  five  thousand  miles  of 
main  water  highways  open  to  the  steamboat,  nearly  two  and 
a  half  million  square  miles  of  drainage  basin,  a  land  greater 
than  all  Europe  except  Russia,  Norway,  and  Sweden,  a  land  of 
levels,  marked  by  essential  geographic  unity,  a  land  estimated 
to  be  able  to  support  a  population  of  two  or  three  hundred 
millions,  three  times  the  present  population  of  the  whole 
nation,  an  empire  of  natural  resources  in  which  to  build  a 
noble  social  structure  worthy  to  hold  its  place  as  the  heart  of 
American  industrial,  political  and  spiritual  life. 

The  significance  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  in  American  his 
tory  was  first  shown  in  the  fact  that  it  opened  to  various 
nations  visions  of  power  in  the  New  World  —  visions  that 
sweep  across  the  horizon  of  historical  possibility  like  the 
luminous  but  unsubstantial  aurora  of  a  comet's  train,  porten 
tous  and  fleeting. 

Out  of  the  darkness  of  the  primitive  history  of  the  con 
tinent  are  being  drawn  the  evidences  of  the  rise  and  fall  of 
Indian  cultures,  the  migrations  through  and  into  the  great 
Valley  by  men  of  the  Stone  Age,  hinted  at  in  legends  and 
languages,  dimly  told  in  the  records  of  mounds  and  artifacts, 
but  waiting  still  for  complete  interpretation. 


180       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Into  these  spaces  and  among  the  savage  peoples,  came 
France  and  wrote  a  romantic  page  in  our  early  history,  a 
page  that  tells  of  unfulfilled  empire.  What  is  striking  in 
the  effect  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  upon  France  is  the  pro 
nounced  influence  of  the  unity  of  its  great  spaces.  It  is  not 
without  meaning  that  Radisson  and  Groseilliers  not  only 
reached  the  extreme  of  Lake  Superior  but  also,  in  all  prob 
ability,  entered  upon  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi  and 
learned  of  its  western  affluent;  that  Marquette  not  only  received 
the  Indians  of  the  Illinois  region  in  his  post  on  the  shores  of 
Lake  Superior,  but  traversed  the  length  of  the  Mississippi 
almost  to  its  mouth,  and  returning  revealed  the  site  of  Chicago; 
that  La  Salle  was  inspired  with  the  vision  of  a  huge  interior 
empire  reaching  from  the  Gulf  to  the  Great  Lakes.  Before 
the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Perrot's  influence  was 
supreme  in  the  Upper  Mississippi,  while  D'Iberville  was  lay 
ing  the  foundations  of  Louisiana  toward  the  moulh  of  the 
river.  Nor  is  it  without  significance  that  while  the  Verendryes 
were  advancing  toward  the  northwest  (where  they  discovered 
the  Big  Horn  Mountains  and  revealed  the  natural  boundaries 
of  the  Valley)  the  Mallet  brothers  were  ascending  the  Platte, 
crossing  the  Colorado  plains  to  Santa  Fe  and  so  revealing  the 
natural  boundaries  toward  the  southwest. 

To  the  English  the  great  Valley  was  a  land  beyond  the 
Alleghanies.  Spotswood,  the  far-sighted  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  predecessor  of  frontier  builders,  grasped  the  situation 
when  he  proposed  western  settlements  to  prevent  the  French 
from  becoming  a  great  people  at  the  back  of  the  colonies.  He 
realized  the  importance  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  as  the  field 
for  expansion,  and  the  necessity  to  the  English  empire  of 
dominating  it,  if  England  would  remain  the  great  power  of 
the  New  World. 

In  the  war  that  followed  between  France  and  England,  we 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  181 

now  see  what  the  men  of  the  time  could  not  have  realized: 
that  the  main  issue  was  neither  the  possession  of  the  fisheries 
nor  the  approaches  to  the  St.  Lawrence  on  the  one  hemisphere, 
nor  the  possession  of  India  on  the  other,  but  the  mastery  of 
the  interior  basin  of  North  America. 

How  little  the  nations  realized  the  true  meaning  of  the 
final  victory  of  England  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  Spain  reluc 
tantly  received  from  France  the  cession  of  the  lands  beyond 
the  Mississippi,  accepting  it  as  a  means  of  preventing  the 
infringement  of  her  colonial  monopoly  in  Spanish  America 
rather  than  as  a  field  for  imperial  expansion. 

But  we  know  now  that  when  George  Washington  came  as 
a  stripling  to  the  camp  of  the  French  at  the  edge  of  the  great 
Valley  and  demanded  the  relinquishment  of  the  French  posts 
in  the  name  of  Virginia,  he  was  demanding  in  the  name  of 
the  English  speaking  people  the  right  to  occupy  and  rule  the 
real  center  of  American  resources  and  power.  When  Brad- 
dock's  axmen  cut  their  road  from  the  Potomac  toward  the 
forks  of  the  Ohio  they  were  opening  a  channel  through  which 
the  forces  of  civilization  should  flow  with  ever  increasing 
momentum  and  "  carving  a  cross  on  the  wilderness  rim  "  at 
the  spot  which  is  now  the  center  of  industrial  power  of  the 
American  nation. 

England  trembled  on  the  brink  of  her  great  conquest,  fear 
ful  of  the  effect  of  these  far-stretching  rivers  upon  her  colonial 
system,  timorous  in  the  presence  of  the  fierce  peoples  who 
held  the  vast  domain  beyond  the  Alleghanies.  It  seems  clear, 
however,  that  the  Proclamation  of  1763,  forbidding  settlement 
and  the  patenting  of  lands  beyond  the  Alleghanies,  was  not 
intended  as  a  permanent  creation  of  an  Indian  reservation  out 
of  this  Valley,  but  was  ralher  a  temporary  arrangement  in 
order  that  British  plans  might  mature  and  a  system  of  grad 
ual  colonization  be  devised.  Already  our  greatest  leaders, 


182       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

men  like  Washington  and  Franklin,  had  been  quick  to  see 
the  importance  of  this  new  area  for  enlarged  activities  of  the 
American  people.  A  sudden  revelation  that  it  was  the  West, 
rather  than  the  ocean,  which  was  the  real  theater  for  the  crea 
tive  energy  of  America  came  with  the  triumph  over  France. 
The  Ohio  Company  and  the  Loyal  Land  Company  indicate 
the  interest  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  while  the  Mississippi 
Company,  headed  by  the  Washingtons  and  Lees,  organized  to 
occupy  southern  Illinois,  Indiana,  and  western  Kentucky, 
mark  the  Virginia  interest  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and 
Franklin's  activity  in  promoting  a  colony  in  the  Illinois  coun 
try  illustrates  the  interest  of  the  Philadelphians.  Indeed, 
Franklin  saw  clearly  the  possibilities  of  a  settlement  there  as 
a  means  of  breaking  up  Spanish  America.  Writing  to  his 
son  in  1767  he  declared  that  a  "  settlement  should  be  made  in 
the  Illinois  country  .  .  .  raising  a  strength  there  which  on 
occasions  of  a  future  war  might  easily  be  poured  down  the 
Mississippi  upon  the  lower  country  and  into  the  Bay  of  Mex 
ico  to  be  used  against  Cuba,  the  French  Islands,  or  Mexico 
itself."4 

The  Mississippi  Valley  had  been  the  despair  of  France  in 
the  matter  of  governmental  control.  The  coureurs  de  bois 
escaping  from  restraints  of  law  and  order  took  their  way 
through  its  extensive  wilderness,  exploring  and  trading  as  they 
listed.  Similarly,  when  the  English  colonists  crossed  the 
Alleghanies  they  escaped  from  the  control  of  mother  colonies 
as  well  as  of  the  mother  country.  If  the  Mississippi  Valley 
revealed  to  the  statesmen  of  the  East,  in  the  exultation  of  the 
war  with  France,  an  opportunity  for  new  empire  building,  it 
revealed  to  the  frontiersmen,  who  penetrated  the  passes  of  the 
Alleghanies,  and  entered  into  their  new  inheritance,  the  sharp 
distinctions  between  them  and  the  Eastern  lands  which  they 

*"  Franklin's  Works,"  iv,  p.  141. 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  183 

left  behind.  From  the  beginning  it  was  clear  that  the  lands 
beyond  the  Alleghanies  furnished  an  opportunity  and  an  incen 
tive  to  develop  American  society  on  independent  and  uncon 
ventional  lines.  The  "  men  of  the  Western  Waters "  broke 
with  the  old  order  of  things,  subordinated  social  restraint  to 
the  freedom  of  the  individual,  won  their  title  to  the  rich  lands 
which  they  entered  by  hard  fighting  against  the  Indians,  hotly 
challenged  the  right  of  the  East  to  rule  them,  demanded  their 
own  States,  and  would  not  be  refused,  spoke  with  contempt  of 
the  old  social  order  of  ranks  and  classes  in  the  lands  between 
the  Alleghanies  and  the  Atlantic,  and  proclaimed  the  ideal  of 
democracy  for  the  vast  country  which  they  had  entered.  Not 
with  the  mercurial  facility  of  the  French  did  they  follow  the 
river  systems  of  the  Great  Valley.  Like  the  advance  of  the 
glacier  they  changed  the  face  of  the  country  in  their  steady  and 
inevitable  progress,  and  they  sought  the  sea.  It  was  not  long 
before  the  Spaniards  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  realized  the 
meaning  of  the  new  forces  that  had  entered  the  Valley. 
In  1794  the  Governor  of  Louisiana  wrote: 

This  vast  and  restless  population  progressively 
driving  the  Indian  tribes  before  them  and  upon 
us,  seek  to  possess  themselves  of  all  the  extensive 
regions  which  the  Indians  occupy  between  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  rivers,  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and 
the  Appalachian  Mountains,  thus  becoming  our 
neighbors,  at  the  same  time  that  they  menacingly 
ask  for  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi. 
If  they  achieve  their  object,  their  ambitions  would 
not  be  confined  to  this  side  of  the  Mississippi. 
Their  writings,  public  papers,  and  speeches,  all 
turn  on  this  point,  the  free  navigation  of  the  Gulf 
by  the  rivers  .  .  .  which  empty  into  it,  the  rich 


184       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

fur  trade  of  the  Missouri,  and  in  time  the  posses 
sion  of  the  rich  mines  of  the  interior  provinces 
of  the  very  Kingdom  of  Mexico.  Their  mode  of 
growth  and  their  policy  are  as  formidable  for 
Spain  as  their  armies.  .  .  .  Their  roving  spirit 
and  the  readiness  with  which  they  procure  suste 
nance  and  shelter  facilitate  rapid  settlement.  A 
rifle  and  a  little  corn  meal  in  a  bag  are  enough 
for  an  American  wandering  alone  in  the  woods  for 
a  month.  .  .  .  With  logs  crossed  upon  one  another 
he  makes  a  house,  and  even  an  impregnable  fort 
against  the  Indians.  .  .  .  Cold  does  not  terrify 
him,  and  when  a  family  wearies  of  one  place,  it 
moves  to  another  and  settles  there  with  the  same 
ease. 

If  such  men  come  to  occupy  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi  and  Missouri,  or  secure  their  navi 
gation,  doubtless  nothing  will  prevent  them  from 
crossing  and  penetrating  into  our  provinces  on  the 
other  side,  which,  being  to  a  great  extent  unoccu 
pied,  can  oppose  no  resistance.  ...  In  my  opin 
ion,  a  general  revolution  in  America  threatens 
Spain  unless  the  remedy  be  applied  promptly. 

In  fact,  the  pioneers  who  had  occupied  the  uplands  of  the 
South,  the  backwoods  stock  with  its  Scotch-Irish  leaders  which 
had  formed  on  the  eastern  edge  of  the  Alleghanies,  separate 
and  distinct  from  the  type  of  tidewater  and  New  England, 
had  found  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  a  new  field  for  expansion 
under  conditions  of  free  land  and  unrestraint.  These  condi 
tions  gave  it  promise  of  ample  time  to  work  out  its  own  social 
type.  But,  first  of  all,  these  men  who  were  occupying  the 
Western  Waters  must  find  an  outlet  for  their  surplus  products, 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  185 

if  they  were  to  become  a  powerful  people.  While  the  Alle- 
ghanies  placed  a  veto  toward  the  east,  the  Mississippi  opened 
a  broad  highway  to  the  south.  Its  swift  current  took  their  flat 
boats  in  its  strong  arms  to  bear  them  to  the  sea,  but  across  the 
outlet  of  the  great  river  Spain  drew  the  barrier  of  her  colonial 
monopoly  and  denied  them  exit. 

The  significance  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  in  American  his 
tory  at  the  opening  of  the  new  republic,  therefore,  lay  in  the 
fact  that,  beyond  the  area  of  the  social  and  political  control 
of  the  thirteen  colonies,  there  had  arisen  a  new  and  aggressive 
society  which  imperiously  put  the  questions  of  the  public 
lands,  internal  communication,  local  self-government,  defense, 
and  aggressive  expansion,  before  the  legislators  of  the  old 
colonial  regime.  The  men  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  com 
pelled  the  men  of  the  East  to  think  in  American  terms  instead 
of  European.  They  dragged  a  reluctant  nation  on  in  a  new 
course. 

From  the  Revolution  to  the  end  of  the  War  of  1812  Europe 
regarded  the  destiny  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  as  undetermined. 
Spain  desired  to  maintain  her  hold  by  means  of  the  control 
given  through  the  possession  of  the  mouth  of  the  river  and 
the  Gulf,  by  her  influence  upon  the  Indian  tribes,  and  by 
intrigues  with  the  settlers.  Her  object  was  primarily  to  safe 
guard  the  Spanish  American  monopoly  which  had  made  her 
a  great  nation  in  the  world.  Instinctively  she  seemed  to  sur 
mise  that  out  of  this  Valley  were  the  issues  of  her  future; 
here  was  the  lever  which  might  break  successively,  from  her 
empire  fragments  about  the  Gulf  —  Louisiana,  Florida  and 
Texas,  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  —  the  Southwest  and  Pacific 
coast,  and  even  the  Philippines  and  the  Isthmian  Canal,  while 
the  American  republic,  building  itself  on  the  resources  of  the 
Valley,  should  become  paramount  over  the  independent  repub 
lics  into  which  her  empire  was  to  disintegrate. 


186       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

France,  seeking  to  regain  her  former  colonial  power,  would 
use  the  Mississippi  Valley  as  a  means  of  provisioning  her 
West  Indian  islands;  of  dominating  Spanish  America,  and 
of  subordinating  to  her  purposes  the  feeble  United  States, 
which  her  policy  assigned  to  the  lands  between  the  Atlantic 
and  the  Alleghanies.  The  ancient  Bourbon  monarchy,  the 
revolutionary  republic,  and  the  Napoleonic  empire  —  all  con 
templated  the  acquisition  of  the  whole  Valley  of  the  Missis 
sippi  from  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.5 

England  holding  the  Great  Lakes,  dominating  the  northern 
Indian  populations  and  threatening  the  Gulf  and  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi  by  her  fleet,  watched  during  the  Revolution, 
the  Confederation,  and  the  early  republic  for  the  breaking 
of  the  fragile  bonds  of  the  thirteen  States,  ready  to  extend 
her  protection  over  the  settlers  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. 

Alarmed  by  the  prospect  of  England's  taking  Louisiana  and 
Florida  from  Spain,  Jefferson  wrote  in  1790:  "Embraced 
from  St.  Croix  to  St.  Mary's  on  one  side  by  their  possessions, 
on  the  other  by  their  fleet,  we  need  not  hesitate  to  say  that 
they  would  soon  find  means  to  unite  to  them  all  the  territory 
covered  by  the  ramifications  of  the  Mississippi."  And  that, 
he  thought,  must  result  in  "  bloody  and  eternal  war  or  indis 
soluble  confederacy  "  with  England. 

None  of  these  nations  deemed  it  impossible  that  American 
settlers  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  might  be  won  to  accept 
another  flag  than  that  of  the  United  States.  Gardoqui  had 
the  effrontery  in  1787  to  suggest  to  Madison  that  the  Kentuck- 
ians  would  make  good  Spanish  subjects.  France  enlisted  the 
support  of  frontiersmen  led  by  George  Rogers  Clark  for  her 
attempted  conquest  of  Louisiana  in  1793.  England  tried  to 
win  support  among  the  western  settlers.  Indeed,  when  we 
recall  that  George  Rogers  Clark  accepted  a  commission  as 

6  [See  the  author's  paper  in  American  Historical  Review,  x,  p.  245.] 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  187 

Major  General  from  France  in  1793  and  again  in  1798;  that 
Wilkinson,  afterwards  commander-in-chief  of  the  American 
army,  secretly  asked  Spanish  citizenship  and  promised  renun 
ciation  of  his  American  allegiance;  that  Governor  Sevier  of 
Franklin,  afterwards  Senator  from  Tennessee  and  its  first  Gov 
ernor  as  a  State,  Robertson  the  founder  of  Cumberland,  and 
Blount,  Governor  of  the  Southwest  Territory  and  afterwards 
Senator  from  Tennessee,  were  all  willing  to  accept  the  rule  of 
another  nation  sooner  than  see  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi 
yielded  by  the  American  government  we  can  easily  believe  that 
it  lay  within  the  realm  of  possibility  that  another  allegiance 
might  have  been  accepted  by  the  frontiersmen  themselves.  We 
may  well  trust  Rufus  Putnam,  whose  federalism  and  devotion 
to  his  country  had  been  proved  and  whose  work  in  founding 
New  England's  settlement  at  Marietta  is  well  known,  when  he 
wrote  in  1790  in  answer  to  Fisher  Ames's  question  whether 
the  Mississippi  Valley  could'  be  retained  in  the  Union: 
"  Should  Congress  give  up  her  claim  to  the  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi  or  cede  it  to  the  Spaniards,  I  believe  the  people  in 
the  Western  quarter  would  separate  themselves  from  the 
United  States  very  soon.  Such  a  measure,  I  have  no  doubt, 
would  excite  so  much  rage  and  dissatisfaction  that  the  people 
would  sooner  put  themselves  under  the  despotic  government  of 
Spain  than  remain  the  indented  servants  of  Congress."  He 
added  that  if  Congress  did  not  afford  due  protection  also  to 
these  western  settlers  they  might  turn  to  England  or  Spain.6 

Prior  to  the  railroad  the  Mississippi  Valley  was  potentially 
the  basis  for  an  independent  empire,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
its  population  would  inevitably  be  drawn  from  the  Eastern 
States.  Its  natural  outlet  was  down  the  current  to  the  Gulf. 
New  Orleans  controlled  the  Valley,  in  the  words  of  Wilkinson, 
"  as  the  key  the  lock,  or  the  citadel  the  outworks."  So  long 

6  Cutler's  "Cutler,"  ii,  p.  372. 


188       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

as  the  Mississippi  Valley  was  menaced,  or  in  part  controlled,  by 
rival  European  states,  just  so  long  must  the  United  States  be 
a  part  of  the  state  system  of  Europe,  involved  in  its  fortunes. 
And  particularly  was  this  the  case  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
until  the  Union  made  internal  commerce,  based  upon  the  Mis 
sissippi  Valley,  its  dominant  economic  interest,  the  merchants 
and  sailors  of  the  northeastern  States  and  the  staple  producers 
of  the  southern  sea-board  were  a  commercial  appanage  of 
Europe.  The  significance  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  was 
clearly  seen  by  Jefferson.  Writing  to  Livingston  in  1802  he 
declared: 

There  is  on  the  globe  one  single  spot,  the  pos 
sessor  of  which  is  our  natural  and  habitual  enemy. 
It  is  New  Orleans,  through  which  the  produce  of 
three-eights  of  our  territory  must  pass  to  market, 
and  from  its  fertility  it  will  ere  long  yield  more 
than  half  of  our  whole  produce  and  contain  more 
than  half  of  our  inhabitants.  .  .  .  The  day  that 
France  takes  possession  of  New  Orleans  fixes  the 
sentence  which  is  to  restrain  her  within  her  low- 
water  mark.  It  seals  the  union  of  two  nations 
who  in  conjunction  can  maintain  exclusive  pos 
session  of  the  ocean.  From  that  moment  we  must 
marry  ourselves  to  the  British  fleet  and  nation 
.  .  .  holding  the  two  continents  of  America  in 
sequestration  for  the  common  purposes  of  the 
united  British  and  American  nations.7 

The  acquisition  of  Louisiana  was  a  recognition  of  the  essen 
tial  unity  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  The  French  engineer 
Collot  reported  to  his  government  after  an  investigation  in 
1796: 

7  "  Jefferson's  Works,"  iv,  p.  431. 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  189 

All  the  positions  on  the  left  [east]  bank  of  the 
Mississippi  .  .  .  without  the  alliance  of  the  West 
ern  states  are  far  from  covering  Louisiana.  .  .  . 
When  two  nations  possess,  one  the  coasts  and  the 
other  the  plains,  the  former  must  inevitably  embark 
or  submit.  From  thence  I  conclude  that  the  West 
ern  States  of  the  North  American  republic  must 
unite  themselves  with  Louisiana  and  form  in  the 
future  one  single  compact  nation;  or  else  that 
colony  to  whatever  power  it  shall  belong  will  be 
conquered  or  devoured. 

The  effect  of  bringing  political  unity  to  the  Mississippi 
Valley  by  the  Louisiana  Purchase  was  profound.  It  was  the 
decisive  step  of  the  United  States  on  an  independent  career 
as  a  world  power,  free  from  entangling  foreign  alliances. 
The  victories  of  Harrison  in  the  Northwest,  in  the  War  of 
1812  that  followed,  ensured  our  expansion  in  the  northern 
half  of  the  Valley.  Jackson's  triumphal  march  to  the  Gulf 
and  his  defense  of  New  Orleans  in  the  same  war  won  the  basis 
for  that  Cotton  Kingdom,  so  important  in  the  economic  life 
of  the  nation  and  so  pregnant  with  the  issue  of  slavery.8  The 
acquisition  of  Florida,  Texas,  and  the  Far  West  followed  natu 
rally.  Not  only  was  the  nation  set  on  an  independent  path 
in  foreign  relations;  its  political  system  was  revolutionized, 
for  the  Mississippi  Valley  now  opened  the  way  for  adding 
State  after  State,  swamping  the  New  England  section  and  its 
Federalism.  The  doctrine  of  strict  construction  had  received 
a  fatal  blow  at  the  hands  of  its  own  prophet.  The  old  con 
ception  of  historic  sovereign  States,  makers  of  a  federation, 

8  [See  on  the  Cotton  Kingdom,  U.  B.  Phillips,  "History  of  Slavery"; 
W.  G.  Brown,  "Lower  South";  W.  E.  Dodd,  "Expansion  and  Conflict"; 
F.  J.  Turner,  "New  West."] 


190       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

was  shattered  by  this  vast  addition  of  raw  material  for  an 
indefinite  number  of  parallelograms  called  States,  nursed 
through  a  Territorial  period  by  the  Federal  government, 
admitted  under  conditions,  and  animated  by  national  rather 
than  by  State  patriotism. 

The  area  of  the  nation  had  been  so  enlarged  and  the  devel 
opment  of  the  internal  resources  so  promoted,  by  the  acqui 
sition  of  the  whole  course  of  the  mighty  river,  its  tributaries 
and  its  outlet,  that  the  Atlantic  coast  soon  turned  its  economic 
energies  from  the  sea  to  the  interior.  Cities  and  sections 
began  to  struggle  for  ascendancy  over  its  industrial  life.  A 
real  national  activity,  a  genuine  American  culture  began.  The 
vast  spaces,  the  huge  natural  resources,  of  the  Valley  demanded 
exploitation  and  population.  Later  there  came  the  tide  of 
foreign  immigration  which  has  risen  so  steadily  that  it  has 
made  a  composite  American  people  whose  amalgamation  is 
destined  to  produce  a  new  national  stock. 

But  without  attempting  to  exhaust,  or  even  to  indicate,  all 
the  effects  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  I  wish  next  to  ask  your 
attention  to  the  significance  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  in  the 
promotion  of  democracy  and  the  transfer  of  the  political  center 
of  gravity  in  the  nation.  The  Mississippi  Valley  has  been 
the  especial  home  of  democracy.  Born  of  free  land  and  the 
pioneer  spirit,  nurtured  in  the  ideas  of  the  Revolution  and  find 
ing  free  play  for  these  ideas  in  the  freedom  of  the  wilder 
ness,  democracy  showed  itself  in  the  earliest  utterances  of  the 
men  of  the  Western  Waters  and  it  has  persisted  there.  The 
demand  for  local  self-government,  which  was  insistent  on  the 
frontier,  and  the  endorsement  given  by  the  Alleghanies  to 
these  demands  led  to  the  creation  of  a  system  of  independent 
Western  governments  and  to  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  an  orig 
inal  contribution  to  colonial  policy.  This  was  framed  in  the 
period  when  any  rigorous  subjection  of  the  West  to  Eastern  rule 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  191 

would  have  endangered  the  ties  that  bound  them  to  the  Union 
itself.  In  the  Constitutional  Convention  prominent  Eastern 
statesmen  expressed  their  fears  of  the  Western  democracy  and 
would  have  checked  its  ability  to  out-vote  the  regions  of  prop 
erty  by  limiting  its  political  power,  so  that  it  should  never 
equal  that  of  the  Atlantic  coast.  But  more  liberal  counsels 
prevailed.  In  the  first  debates  upon  the  public  lands,  also, 
it  was  clearly  stated  that  the  social  system  of  the  nation  was 
involved  quite  as  much  as  the  question  of  revenue.  Eastern 
fears  that  cheap  lands  in  abundance  would  depopulate  the 
Atlantic  States  and  check  their  industrial  growth  by  a  scarcity 
of  labor  supply  were  met  by  the  answer  of  one  of  the  repre 
sentatives  in  1796: 

I  question  if  any  man  would  be  hardy  enough 
to  point  out  a  class  of  citizens  by  name  that  ought 
to  be  the  servants  of  the  community ;  yet  unless  that 
is  done  to  what  class  of  the  People  could  you  direct 
such  a  law?  But  if  you  passed  such  an  act  [lim 
iting  the  area  offered  for  sale  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley],  it  would  be  tantamount  to  saying  that 
there  is  some  class  which  must  remain  here,  and  by 
law  be  obliged  to  serve  the  others  for  such  wages 
as  they  please  to  give. 

Gallatin  showed  his  comprehension  of  the  basis  of  the 
prosperous  American  democracy  in  the  same  debate  when  he 
said: 

If  the  cause  of  the  happiness  of  this  country  was 
examined  into,  it  would  be  found  to  arise  as  much 
from  the  great  plenty  of  land  in  proportion  to  the 
inhabitants,  which  their  citizens  enjoyed  as  from 
the  wisdom  of  their  political  institutions. 


192       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Out  of  this  frontier  democratic  society  where  the  freedom 
and  abundance  of  land  in  the  great  Valley  opened  a  refuge 
to  the  oppressed  in  all  regions,  came  the  Jacksonian  democ 
racy  which  governed  the  nation  after  the  downfall  of  the  party 
of  John  Quincy  Adams.  Its  center  rested  in  Tennessee,  the 
region  from  which  so  large  a  portion  of  the  Mississippi  Val 
ley  was  settled  by  descendants  of  the  men  of  the  Upland  South. 
The  rule  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  is  seen  when  we  recall  the 
place  that  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri  held  in  both 
parties.  Besides  Jackson,  Clay,  Harrison  and  Polk,  we  count 
such  presidential  candidates  as  Hugh  White  and  John  Bell, 
Vice  President  R.  M.  Johnson,  Grundy,  the  chairman  of  the 
finance  committee,  and  Benton,  the  champion  of  western  radi 
calism. 

It  was  in  this  same  period,  and  largely  by  reason  of  the 
drainage  of  population  to  the  West,  and  the  stir  in  the  air 
raised  by  the  Western  winds  of  Jacksonian  democracy,  that 
most  of  the  older  States  reconstructed  their  constitutions  on  a 
more  democratic  basis.  From  the  Mississippi  Valley  where 
there  were  liberal  suffrage  provisions  (based  on  population 
alone  instead  of  property  and  population),  disregard  of 
vested  interests,  and  insistence  on  the  rights  of  man,  came  the 
inspiration  for  this  era  of  change  in  the  franchise  and  appor 
tionment,  of  reform  of  laws  for  imprisonment  for  debt,  of 
general  attacks  upon  monopoly  and  privilege.  "  It  is  now 
plain,"  wrote  Jackson  in  1837,  "  that  the  war  is  to  be  carried 
on  by  the  monied  aristocracy  of  the  few  against  the  democ 
racy  of  numbers;  the  [prosperous]  to  make  the  honest  laborers 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  .  .  .  through  the  credit 
and  paper  system." 

By  this  time  the  Mississippi  Valley  had  grown  in  popula 
tion  and  political  power  so  that  it  ranked  with  the  older  sec 
tions.  The  next  indication  of  its  significance  in  American 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 


193 


history  which  I  shall  mention  is  its  position  in  shaping  the 
economic  and  political  course  of  the  nation  between  the  close 
of  the  War  of  1812  and  the  slavery  struggle.  In  1790  the 
Mississippi  Valley  had  a  population  of  about  a  hundred  thou 
sand,  or  one-fortieth  of  that  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole; 
by  1810  it  had  over  a  million,  or  one-seventh;  by  1830  it  had 
three  and  two-thirds  millions,  or  over  one-fourth;  by  1840  over 
six  millions,  more  than  one-third.  While  the  Atlantic  coast 
increased  only  a  million  and  a  half  souls  between  1830  and 
1840,  the  Mississippi  Valley  gained  nearly  three  millions. 
Ohio  (virgin  wilderness  in  1790)  was,  half  a  century  later, 
nearly  as  populous  as  Pennsylvania  and  twice  as  populous  as 
Massachusetts.  While  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and  South 
Carolina  were  gaining  60,000  souls  between  1830  and  1840, 
Illinois  gained  318,000.  Indeed,  the  growth  of  this  State 
alone  excelled  that  of  the  entire  South  Atlantic  States. 

These  figures  show  the  significance  of  the  Mississippi  Valley 
in  its  pressure  upon  the  older  section  by  the  competition  of  its 
cheap  lands,  its  abundant  harvests,  and  its  drainage  of  the 
labor  supply.  All  of  these  things  meant  an  upward  lift  to 
the  Eastern  wage  earner.  But  they  meant  also  an  increase  of 
political  power  in  the  Valley.  Before  the  War  of  1812  the 
Mississippi  Valley  had  six  senators,  New  England  ten,  the 
Middle  States  ten,  and  the  South  eight.  By  1840  the  Missis 
sippi  Valley  had  twenty-two  senators,  double  those  of  the 
Middle  States  and  New  England  combined,  and  nearly  three 
times  as  many  as  the  Old  South;  while  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  the  Mississippi  Valley  outweighed  any  one  of  the 
old  sections.  In  1810  it  had  less  than  one-third  the  power 
of  New  England  and  the  South  together  in  the  House.  In 
1840  it  outweighed  them  both  combined  and  because  of  its  spe 
cial  circumstances  it  held  the  balance  of  power. 

While  the  Mississippi  Valley  thus  rose  to  superior  political 


194       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

power  as  compared  with  any  of  the  old  sections,  its  economic 
development  made  it  the  inciting  factor  in  the  industrial  life 
of  the  nation.  After  the  War  of  1812  the  steamboat  revolu 
tionized  the  transportation  facilities  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
In  each  economic  area  a  surplus  formed,  demanding  an  outlet 
and  demanding  returns  in  manufactures.  The  spread  of  cot 
ton  into  the  lower  Mississippi  Valley  and  the  Gulf  Plains  had 
a  double  significance.  This  transfer  of  the  center  of  cotton 
production  away  from  the  Atlantic  South  not  only  brought 
increasing  hardship  and  increasing  unrest  to  the  East  as  the 
competition  of  the  virgin  soils  depressed  Atlantic  land  values 
and  made  Eastern  labor  increasingly  dear,  but  the  price  of 
cotton  fell  also  in  due  proportion  to  the  increase  in  produc 
tion  by  the  Mississippi  Valley.  While  the  transfer  of  eco 
nomic  power  from  the  Seaboard  South  to  the  Cotton  Kingdom 
of  the  lower  Mississippi  Valley  was  in  progress,  the  upper 
Mississippi  Valley  was  leaping  forward,  partly  under  the 
stimulus  of  a  market  for  its  surplus  in  the  plantations  of  the 
South,  where  almost  exclusive  cultivation  of  the  great  staples 
resulted  in  a  lack  of  foodstuffs  and  livestock. 

At  the  same  time  the  great  river  and  its  affluents  became 
the  highway  of  a  commerce  that  reached  to  the  West  Indies, 
the  Atlantic  Coast,  Europe,  and  South  America.  The  Missis 
sippi  Valley  was  an  industrial  entity,  from  Pittsburgh  and  Santa 
Fe  to  New  Orleans.  It  became  the  most  important  influence 
in  American  politics  and  industry.  Washington  had  declared 
in  1784  that  it  was  the  part  of  wisdom  for  Virginia  to  bind 
the  West  to  the  East  by  ties  of  interest  through  internal 
improvement  thereby  taking  advantage  of  the  extensive  and 
valuable  trade  of  a  rising  empire. 

This  realization  of  the  fact  that  an  economic  empire  was 
growing  up  beyond  the  mountains  stimulated  rival  cities,  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore,  to  engage  in  a  struggle 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  195 

to  supply  the  West  with  goods  and  receive  its  products.  This 
resulted  in  an  attempt  to  break  down  the  barrier  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies  by  internal  improvements.  The  movement  became 
especially  active  after  the  War  of  1812,  when  New  York  car 
ried  out  De  Witt  Clinton's  vast  conception  of  making  by  the 
Erie  Canal  a  greater  Hudson  which  should  drain  to  the  port 
of  New  York  all  the  basin  of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  by  means 
of  other  canals  even  divert  the  traffic  from  the  tributaries  of 
the  Mississippi.  New  York  City's  commercial  ascendancy 
dates  from  this  connection  with  interior  New  York  and  the 
Mississippi  Valley.  A  writer  in  Hunt's  Merchants'  Magazine 
in  1869  makes  the  significance  of  this  clearer  by  these  words: 

There  was  a  period  in  the  history  of  the  seaboard 
cities  when  there  was  no  West;  and  when  the  Alle- 
ghany  Mountains  formed  the  frontier  of  settle 
ment  and  agricultural  production.  During  that 
epoch  the  seaboard  cities,  North  and  South,  grew 
in  proportion  to  the  extent  and  fertility  of  the 
country  in  their  rear;  and  as  Maryland,  Virginia, 
the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  were  more  productive 
in  staples  valuable  to  commerce  than  the  colonies 
north  of  them,  the  cities  of  Baltimore,  Norfolk, 
Charleston,  and  Savannah  enjoyed  a  greater  trade 
and  experienced  a  larger  growth  than  those  on  the 
northern  seaboard. 

He,  then,  classifies  the  periods  of  city  development  into 
three:  (1)  the  provincial,  limited  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard; 
(2)  that  of  canal  and  turnpike  connected  with  the  Mississippi 
Valley;  and  (3)  that  of  railroad  connection.  Thus  he  was 
able  to  show  how  Norfolk,  for  example,  was  shut  off  from 
the  enriching  currents  of  interior  trade  and  was  outstripped 


196       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

by  New  York.  The  efforts  of  Philadelphia,  Baltimore, 
Charleston,  and  Savannah  to  divert  the  trade  of  the  Mississippi 
system  to  their  own  ports  on  the  Atlantic,  and  the  rise  or  fall 
of  these  cities  in  proportion  as  they  succeeded  are  a  sufficient 
indication  of  the  meaning  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  in  Amer 
ican  industrial  life.  What  colonial  empire  has  been  for  Lon 
don  that  the  Mississippi  Valley  is  to  the  seaboard  cities  of  the 
United  States,  awakening  visions  of  industrial  empire,  system 
atic  control  of  vast  spaces,  producing  the  American  type  of 
the  captain  of  industry. 

It  was  not  alone  city  rivalry  that  converged  upon  the  Mis 
sissippi  Valley  and  sought  its  alliance.  Sectional  rivalry 
likewise  saw  that  the  balance  of  power  possessed  by  the  inte 
rior  furnished  an  opportunity  for  combinations.  This  was  a 
fundamental  feature  of  Calhoun's  policy  when  he  urged  the 
seaboard  South  to  complete  a  railroad  system  to  tap  the 
Northwest.  As  Washington  had  hoped  to  make  western  trade 
seek  its  outlet  in  Virginia  and  build  up  the  industrial  power 
of  the  Old  Dominion  by  enriching  intercourse  with  the  Missis 
sippi  Valley,  as  Monroe  wished  to  bind  the  West  to  Virginia's 
political  interests;  and  as  De  Witt  Clinton  wished  to  attach 
it  to  New  York,  so  Calhoun  and  Hayne  would  make  "  Georgia 
and  Carolina  the  commercial  center  of  the  Union,  and  the 
two  most  powerful  and  influential  members  of  the  confed 
eracy,"  by  draining  the  Mississippi  Valley  to  their  ports.  "  I 
believe,"  said  Calhoun,  "  that  the  success  of  a  connection  of 
the  West  is  of  the  last  importance  to  us  politically  and  com 
mercially.  ...  I  do  verily  believe  that  Charleston  has  more 
advantages  in  her  position  for  the  Western  trade,  than  any 
city  on  the  Atlantic,  but  to  develop  them  we  ought  to  look 
to  the  Tennessee  instead  of  the  Ohio,  and  much  farther  to  the 
West  than  Cincinnati  or  Lexington." 

This  was  the  secret  of  Calhoun's  advocacy  in  1836  and  1837 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  197 

both  of  the  distribution  of  the  surplus  revenue  and  of  the  ces 
sion  of  the  public  lands  to  the  States  in  which  they  lay,  as  an 
inducement  to  the  West  to  ally  itself  with  Southern  policies; 
and  it  is  the  key  to  the  readiness  of  Calhoun,  even  after  he 
lost  his  nationalism,  to  promote  internal  improvements  which 
would  foster  the  southward  current  of  trade  on  the  Mississippi. 

Without  going  into  details,  I  may  simply  call  your  atten 
tion  to  the  fact  that  Clay's  whole  system  of  internal  improve 
ments  and  tariff  was  based  upon  the  place  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  in  American  life.  It  was  the  upper  part  of  the  Val 
ley,  and  especially  the  Ohio  Valley,  that  furnished  the  votes 
which  carried  the  tariffs  of  1816,  1824,  and  1828.  Its  inter 
ests  profoundly  influenced  the  details  of  those  tariffs  and  its 
need  of  internal  improvement  constituted  a  basis  for  sectional 
bargaining  in  all  the  constructive  legislation  after  the  War 
of  1812.  New  England,  the  Middle  Region,  and  the  South  each 
sought  alliance  with  the  growing  section  beyond  the  moun 
tains.  American  legislation  bears  the  enduring  evidence  of 
these  alliances.  Even  the  National  Bank  found  in  this  Valley 
the  main  sphere  of  its  business.  The  nation  had  turned  its 
energies  to  internal  exploitation,  and  sections  contended  for 
the  economic  and  political  power  derived  from  connection 
with  the  interior. 

But  already  the  Mississippi  Valley  was  beginning  to  stratify, 
both  socially  and  geographically.  As  the  railroads  pushed 
across  the  mountains,  the  tide  of  New  England  and  New  York 
colonists  and  German  immigrants  sought  the  basin  of  the 
Great  Lakes  and  the  Upper  Mississippi.  A  distinct  zone, 
industrially  and  socially  connected  with  New  England,  was 
forming.  The  railroad  reinforced  the  Erie  Canal  and,  as 
De  Bow  put  it,  turned  back  the  tide  of  the  Father  of  Waters 
so  that  its  outlet  was  in  New  York  instead  of  New  Orleans  for 
a  large  part  of  the  Valley.  Below  the  Northern  zone  was  the 


198       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

border  zone  of  the  Upland  South,  the  region  of  compromise, 
including  both  banks  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Missouri  and  reach 
ing  down  to  the  hills  on  the  north  of  the  Gulf  Plains.  The 
Cotton  Kingdom  based  on  slavery  found  its  center  in  the  fer 
tile  soils  along  the  Lower  Mississippi  and  the  black  prairies 
of  Georgia  and  Alabama,  and  was  settled  largely  by  planters 
from  the  old  cotton  lands  of  the  Atlantic  States.  The  Missis 
sippi  Valley  had  rejuvenated  slavery,  had  given  it  an  aggres 
sive  tone  characteristic  of  Western  life. 

Thus  the  Valley  found  itself  in  the  midst  of  the  slavery 
struggle  at  the  very  time  when  its  own  society  had  lost  homo 
geneity.  Let  us  allow  two  leaders,  one  of  the  South  and  one 
of  the  North,  to  describe  the  situation;  and,  first,  let  the 
South  speak.  Said  Hammond,  of  South  Carolina,9  in  a  speech 
in  the  Senate  on  March  4,  1858: 

I  think  it  not  improper  that  I  should  attempt 
'  to  bring  the  North  and  South  face  to  face,  and 
see  what  resources  each  of  us  might  have  in  the 
contingency  of  separate  organizations. 

Through  the  heart  of  our  country  runs  the  great 
Mississippi,  the  father  of  waters,  into  whose  bosom 
are  poured  thirty-six  thousand  miles  of  tributary 
streams;  and  beyond  we  have  the  desert  prairie 
wastes  to  protect  us  in  our  rear.  Can  you  hem 
in  such  a  territory  as  that?  You  talk  of  putting 
up  a  wall  of  fire  around  eight  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  miles  so  situated!  How  absurd. 

But  in  this  territory  lies  the  great  valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  now  the  real  and  soon  to  be  the 
acknowledged  seat  of  the  empire  of  the  world. 
The  sway  of  that  valley  will  be  as  great  as  ever 

9  "  Congressional  Globe,"  35th  Congress,  First  Session,  Appendix,  p.  70. 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  199 

the  Nile  knew  in  the  earlier  ages  of  mankind. 
We  own  the  most  of  it.  The  most  valuable  part 
of  it  belongs  to  us  now;  and  although  those  who 
have  settled  above  us  are  now  opposed  to  us, 
another  generation  will  tell  a  different  tale.  They 
are  ours  by  all  the  laws  of  nature;  slave  labor 
will  go  to  every  foot  of  this  great  valley  where  it 
will  be  found  profitable  to  use  it,  and  some  of 
those  who  may  not  use  it  are  soon  to  be  united 
with  us  by  such  ties  as  will  make  us  one  and  insep 
arable.  The  iron  horse  will  soon  be  clattering 
over  the  sunny  plains  of  the  South  to  bear  the 
products  of  its  upper  tributaries  to  our  Atlantic 
ports,  as  it  now  does  through  the  ice-bound  North. 
There  is  the  great  Mississippi,  bond  of  union  made 
by  nature  herself.  She  will  maintain  it  forever. 

As  the  Seaboard  South  had  transferred  the  mantle  of  leader 
ship  to  Tennessee  and  then  to  the  Cotton  Kingdom  of  the 
Lower  Mississippi,  so  New  England  and  New  York  resigned 
their  command  to  the  northern  half  of  the  Mississippi  Valley 
and  the  basin  of  the  Great  Lakes.  Seward,  the  old-time  leader 
of  the  Eastern  Whigs  who  had  just  lost  the  Republican  nom 
ination  for  the  presidency  to  Lincoln,  may  rightfully  speak 
for  the  Northeast.  In  the  fall  of  1860,  addressing  an  audience 
at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  he  declared: 10 

The  empire  established  at  Washington  is  of  less 
than  a  hundred  years'  formation.  It  was  the  empire 
of  thirteen  Atlantic  states.  Still,  practically,  the 
mission  of  that  empire  is  fulfilled.  The  power 
that  directs  it  is  ready  to  pass  away  from  those 

i°"Seward's  Works"  (Boston,  1884),  iv,  p.  319. 


200       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

thirteen  states,  and  although  held  and  exercised 
under  the  same  constitution  and  national  form  of 
government,  yet  it  is  now  in  the  very  act  of  being 
transferred  from  the  thirteen  states  east  of  the 
Alleghany  mountains  and  on  the  coast  of  the 
Atlantic  ocean,  to  the  twenty  states  that  lie  west 
of  the  Alleghanies,  and  stretch  away  from  their 
base  to  the  base  of  the  Rocky  mountains  on  the 
West,  and  you  are  the  heirs  to  it.  When  the  next 
census  shall  reveal  your  power,  you  will  be  found 
to  be  the  masters  of  the  United  States  of  Amer 
ica,  and  through  them  the  dominating  political 
power  of  the  world. 

Appealing  to  the  Northwest  on  the  slavery  issue  Seward 
declared : 

The  whole  responsibility  rests  henceforth  direct 
ly  or  indirectly  on  the  people  of  the  Northwest. 
.  .  .  There  can  be  no  virtue  in  commercial  and 
manufacturing  communities  to  maintain  a  democ 
racy,  when  the  democracy  themselves  do  not  want 
a  democracy.  There  is  no  virtue  in  Pearl  street, 
in  Wall  street,  in  Court  street,  in  Chestnut  street, 
in  any  other  street  of  great  commercial  cities,  that 
can  save  the  great  democratic  government  of  ours, 
when  you  cease  to  uphold  it  with  your  intelligent 
votes,  your  strong  and  mighty  hands.  You  must, 
therefore,  lead  us  as  we  heretofore  reserved  and 
prepared  the  way  for  you.  We  resign  to  you  the 
banner  of  human  rights  and  human  liberty,  on  this 
continent,  and  we  bid  you  be  firm,  bold  and  onward 
and  then  you  may  hope  that  we  will  be  able  to  fol 
low  you. 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  201 

When  we  survey  the  course  of  the  slavery  struggle  in  the 
United  States  it  is  clear  that  the  form  the  question  took  was 
due  to  the  Mississippi  Valley.  The  Ordinance  of  1787,  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  the  Texas  question,  the  Free  Soil  agi 
tation,  the  Compromise  of  1850,  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill, 
the  Dred  Scott  decision,  "  bleeding  Kansas  " —  these  are  all  i 
Mississippi  Valley  questions,  and  the  mere  enumeration  makes, 
it  plain  that  it  was  the  Mississippi  Valley  as  an  area  for 
expansion  which  gave  the  slavery  issue  its  significance  in,' 
American  history.  But  for  this  field  of  expansion,  slavery* 
might  have  fulfilled  the  expectation  of  the  fathers  and  grad 
ually  died  away. 

Of  the  significance  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  in  the  Civil 
War,  it  is  unnecessary  that  I  should  speak.  Illinois  gave  to 
the  North  its  President;  Mississippi  gave  to  the  South  its 
President.  Lincoln  and  Davis  were  both  born  in  Kentucky. 
Grant  and  Sherman,  the  northern  generals,  came  from  the 
Mississippi  Valley;  and  both  of  them  believed  that  when  Vicks- 
burg  fell  the  cause  of  the  South  was  lost,  and  so  it  must 
have  been  if  the  Confederacy  had  been  unable,  after  victories 
in  the  East,  to  regain  the  Father  of  Waters;  for,  as  General 
Sherman  said:  "Whatever  power  holds  that  river  can  gov 
ern  this  continent." 

With  the  close  of  the  war  political  power  passed  for  many 
years  to  the  northern  half  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  as  the 
names  of  Grant,  Hayes,  Garfield,  Harrison,  and  McKinley 
indicate.  The  population  of  the  Valley  grew  from  about 
fifteen  millions  in  1860  to  over  forty  millions  in  1900  —  over 
half  the  total  population  of  the  United  States.  The  signifi 
cance  of  its  industrial  growth  is  not  likely  to  be  overestimated 
or  overlooked.  On  its  northern  border,  from  near  Minnesota's 
boundary  line,  through  the  Great  Lakes  to  Pittsburgh,  on  its 
eastern  edge,  runs  a  huge  movement  of  iron  from  mine  to 


202       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

factory.  This  industry  is  basal  in  American  life,  and  it  has 
revolutionized  the  industry  of  the  world.  The  United  States 
produces  pig  iron  and  steel  in  amount  equal  to  her  two  great 
est  competitors  combined,  and  the  iron  ores  for  this  product 
are  chiefly  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.  It  is  the  chief  producer 
of  coal,  thereby  enabling  the  United  States  almost  to  equal 
the  combined  production  of  Germany  and  Great  Britain;  and 
great  oil  fields  of  the  nation  are  in  its  midst.  Its  huge  crops 
of  wheat  and  corn  and  its  cattle  are  the  main  resources 
for  the  United  States  and  are  drawn  upon  by  Europe.  Its 
cotton  furnishes  two-thirds  of  the  world's  factory  supply.  Its 
railroad  system  constitutes  the  greatest  transportation  net 
work  in  the  world.  Again  it  is  seeking  industrial  consolida 
tion  by  demanding  improvement  of  its  vast  water  system  as  a 
unit.  If  this  design,  favored  by  Roosevelt,  shall  at  some 
time  be  accomplished,  again  the  bulk  of  the  commerce  of  the 
Valley  may  flow  along  the  old  routes  to  New  Orleans;  and  to 
Galveston  by  the  development  of  southern  railroad  outlets 
after  the  building  of  the  Panama  Canal.  For  the  develop 
ment  and  exploitation  of  these  and  of  the  transportation  and 
trade  interests  of  the  Middle  West,  Eastern  capital  has  been 
consolidated  into  huge  corporations,  trusts,  and  combinations. 
With  the  influx  of  capital,  and  the  rise  of  cities  and  manufac 
tures,  portions  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  have  become  assim 
ilated  with  the  East.  With  the  end  of  the  era  of  free  lands  the 
basis  of  its  democratic  society  is  passing  away. 

The  final  topic  on  which  I  shall  briefly  comment  in  this  dis 
cussion  of  the  significance  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  in  Amer 
ican  history  is  a  corollary  of  this  condition.  Has  the  Missis 
sippi  Valley  a  permanent  contribution  to  make  to  American 
society,  or  is  it  to  be  adjusted  into  a  type  characteristically 
Eastern  and  European?  In  other  words,  has  the  United  States 
itself  an  original  contribution  to  make  to  the  history  of  society? 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  203 

This  is  what  it  comes  to.  The  most  significant  fact  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley  is  its  ideals.  Here  has  been  developed,  not 
by  revolutionary  theory,  but  by  growth  among  free  oppor 
tunities,  the  conception  of  a  vast  democracy  made  up  of  mobile 
ascending  individuals,  conscious  of  their  power  and  their 
responsibilities.  Can  these  ideals  of  individualism  and  democ 
racy  be  reconciled  and  applied  to  the  twentieth  century  type 
of  civilization?  » 

Other  nations  have  been  rich  and  prosperous  and  powerful, 
art-loving  and  empire-building.  No  other  nation  on  a  vast 
scale  has  been  controlled  by  a  self-conscious,  self -restrained 
democracy  in  the  interests  of  progress  and  freedom,  industrial 
as  well  as  political.  It  is  in  the  vast  and  level  spaces  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  if  anywhere,  that  the  forces  of  social 
transformation  and  the  modification  of  its  democratic  ideals 
may  be  arrested. 

Beginning  with  competitive  individualism,  as  well  as  with 
belief  in  equality,  the  farmers  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  grad 
ually  learned  that  unrestrained  competition  and  combination 
meant  the  triumph  of  the  strongest,  the  seizure  in  the  interest 
of  a  dominant  class  of  the  strategic  points  of  the  nation's  life. 
They  learned  that  between  the  ideal  of  individualism,  unre 
strained  by  society,  and  the  ideal  of  democracy,  was  an  innate 
conflict;  that  their  very  ambitions  and  forcefulness  had  endan 
gered  their  democracy.  The  significance  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  in  American  history  has  lain  partly  in  the  fact  that  it 
was  a  region  of  revolt.  Here  have  arisen  varied,  sometimes 
ill-considered,  but  always  devoted,  movements  for  ameliorat 
ing  the  lot  of  the  common  man  in  the  interests  of  democracy. 
Out  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  have  come  successive  and  related 
tidal  waves  of  popular  demand  for  real  or  imagined  legisla 
tive  safeguards  to  their  rights  and  their  social  ideals.  The 
Granger  movement,  the.  Greenback  movement,  the  Populist 


204       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

movement,  Bryan  Democracy,  and  Roosevelt  Republicanism 
all  found  their  greatest  strength  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
They  were  Mississippi  Valley  ideals  in  action.  Its  people 
were  learning  by  experiment  and  experience  how  to  grapple 
with  the  fundamental  problem  of  creating  a  just  social  order 
that  shall  sustain  the  free,  progressive,  individual  in  a  real 
democracy.  The  Mississippi  Valley  is  asking,  "  What  shall  it 
profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own 
soul?  " 

The  Mississippi  Valley  has  furnished  a  new  social  order  to 
America.  Its  universities  have  set  new  types  of  institutions 
for  social  service  and  for  the  elevation  of  the  plain  people. 
Its  historians  should  recount  its  old  ambitions,  and  inventory 
its  ideals,  as  well  as  its  resources,  for  the  information  of  the 
present  age,  to  the  end  that  building  on  its  past,  the  mighty 
Valley  may  have  a  significance  in  the  life  of  the  nation  even 
more  profound  than  any  which  I  have  recounted. 


VII 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  WEST1 

The  problem  of  the  West  is  nothing  less  than  the  problem 
of  American  development.  A  glance  at  the  map  of  the  United 
States  reveals  the  truth.  To  write  of  a  "  Western  sectional 
ism,"  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  Alleghanies,  is,  in  itself,  to 
proclaim  the  writer  a  provincial.  What  is  the  West?  What 
has  it  been  in  American  life?  To  have  the  answers  to  these 
questions,  is  to  understand  the  most  significant  features  of 
the  United  States  of  to-day. 

The  West,  at  bottom,  is  a  form  of  society,  rather  than  an 
area.  It  is  the  term  applied  to  the  region  whose  social  con 
ditions  result  from  the  application  of  older  institutions  and 
ideas  to  the  transforming  influences  of  free  land.  By  this 
application,  a  new  environment  is  suddenly  entered,  freedom 
of  opportunity  is  opened,  the  cake  of  custom  is  broken,  and 
new  activities,  new  lines  of  growth,  new  institutions  and  new 
ideals,  are  brought  into  existence.  The  wilderness  disappears, 
the  "  West "  proper  passes  on  fto  a  new  frontier,  and  in  the 
former  area,  a  new  society  has  emerged  from  its  contact  with 
the  backwoods.  Gradually  this  society  loses  its  primitive  con 
ditions,  and  assimilates  itself  to  the  type  of  the  older  social 
conditions  of  the  East;  but  it  bears  within  it  enduring  and  dis 
tinguishing  survivals  of  its  frontier  experience.  Decade  after 
decade,  West  after  West,  this  rebirth  of  American  society  has 
gone  on,  has  left  its  traces  behind  it,  and  has  reacted  on  the 
East.  The  history  of  our  political  institutions,  our  democ 
racy,  is  not  a  history  of  imitation,  of  simple  borrowing;  it  is 

1  Atlantic  Monthly,  September,  1896.    Reprinted  by  permission. 

205 


206       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

a  history  of  the  evolution  and  adaptation  of  organs  in  response 
to  changed  environment,  a  history  of  the  origin  of  new  polit 
ical  species.  In  this  sense,  therefore,  the  West  has  been  a 
constructive  force  of  the  highest  significance  in  our  life.  To 
use  the  words  of  that  acute  and  widely  informed  observer,  Mr. 
Bryce,  "The  West  is  the  most  American  part  of  America. 
.  .  .  What  Europe  is  to  Asia,  what  America  is  to  England, 
that  the  Western  States  and  Territories  are  to  the  Atlantic 
States." 

The  West,  as  a  phase  of  social  organization,  began  with  the 
Atlantic  coast,  and  passed  across  the  continent.  But  the  colo 
nial  tide-water  area  was  in  close  touch  with  the  Old  World, 
and  soon  lost  its  Western  aspects.  In  the  middle  of  the  eigh 
teenth  century,  the  newer  social  conditions  appeared  along 
the  upper  waters  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Atlantic.  Here  it 
was  that  the  West  took  on  its  distinguishing  features,  and  trans 
mitted  frontier  traits  and  ideals  to  this  area  in  later  days. 
On  the  coast,  were  the  fishermen  and  skippers,  the  merchants 
and  planters,  with  eyes  turned  toward  Europe.  Beyond  the 
falls  of  the  rivers  were  the  pioneer  farmers,  largely  of  non- 
English  stock,  Scotch-Irish  and  German.  They  constituted  a 
distinct  people,  and  may  be  regarded  as  an  expansion  of  the 
social  and  economic  life  of  the  middle  region  into  the  back 
country  of  the  South.  These  frontiersmen  were  the  ancestors 
of  Boone,  Andrew  Jackson,  Calhoun,  Clay,  and  Lincoln. 
Washington  and  Jefferson  were  profoundly  affected  by  these 
frontier  conditions.  The  forest  clearings  have  been  the  seed 
plots  of  American  character. 

In  the  Revolutionary  days,  the  settlers  crossed  the  Alle- 
ghanies  and  put  a  barrier  between  them  and  the  coast.  They 
became,  to  use  their  phrases,  "  the  men  of  the  Western  waters," 
the  heirs  of  the  "  Western  world. "  In  this  era,  the  backwoods- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  WEST  207 

men,  all  along  the  western  slopes  of  the  mountains,  with  a 
keen  sense  of  the  difference  between  them  and  the  dwellers  on 
the  coast,  demanded  organization  into  independent  States  of 
the  Union.  Self-government  was  their  ideal.  Said  one  of 
their  rude,  but  energetic  petitions  for  statehood:  "Some  of 
our  fellow-citizens  may  think  we  are  not  able  to  conduct  our 
affairs  and  consult  our  interests;  but  if  our  society  is  rude, 
much  wisdom  is  not  necessary  to  supply  our  wants,  and  a 
fool  can  sometimes  put  on  his  clothes  better  than  a  wise  man 
can  do  it  for  him."  This  forest  philosophy  is  the  philosophy 
of  American  democracy.  But  the  men  of  the  coast  were  not 
ready  to  admit  its  implications.  They  apportioned  the  State 
legislatures  so  that  the  property-holding  minority  of  the  tide 
water  lands  were  able  to  outvote  the  more  populous  back  coun 
tries.  A  similar  system  was  proposed  by  Federalists  in  the 
constitutional  convention  of  1787.  Gouverneur  Morris,  argu 
ing  in  favor  of  basing  representation  on  property  as  well  as 
numbers,  declared  that  "  he  looked  forward,  also,  to  that  range 
of  new  States  which  would  soon  be  formed  in  the  West.  He 
thought  the  rule  of  representation  ought  to  be  so  fixed,  as  to 
secure  to  the  Atlantic  States  a  prevalence  in  the  national  coun 
cils."  "  The  new  States,"  said  he,  "  will  know  less  of  the  pub 
lic  interest  than  these;  will  have  an  interest  in  many  respects 
different;  in  particular  will  be  little  scrupulous  of  involving 
the  community  in  wars,  the  burdens  and  operations  of  which 
would  fall  chiefly  on  the  maritime  States.  Provision  ought, 
therefore,  to  be  made  to  prevent  the  maritime  States  from 
being  hereafter  outvoted  by  them."  He  added  that  the  West 
ern  country  "  would  not  be  able  to  furnish  men  equally 
enlightened  to  share  in  the  administration  of  our  common 
interests.  The  busy  haunts  of  men,  not  the  remote  wilderness, 
was  the  proper  school  of  political  talents.  If  the  Western 
people  get  power  into  their  hands,  they  will  ruin  the  Atlantic 


208       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

interest.  The  back  members  are  always  most  averse  to  the 
best  measures."  Add  to  these  utterances  of  Gouverneur  Morris 
the  impassioned  protest  of  Josiah  Quincy,  of  Massachusetts,  in 
the  debates  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  on  the  admission 
of  Louisiana.  Referring  to  the  discussion  over  the  slave  votes 
and  the  West  in  the  constitutional  convention,  he  declared, 
"  Suppose,  then,  that  it  had  been  distinctly  foreseen  that,  in 
addition  to  the  effect  of  this  weight,  the  whole  population  of  a 
world  beyond  the  Mississippi  was  to  be  brought  into  this  and 
the  other  branch  of  the  legislature,  to  form  our  laws,  control 
our  rights,  and  decide  our  destiny.  Sir,  can  it  be  pretended 
that  the  patriots  of  that  day  would  for  one  moment  have 
listened  to  it?  ...  They  had  not  taken  degrees  at  the  hospital 
of  idiocy.  .  .  .  Why,  sir,  I  have  already  heard  of  six  States, 
and  some  say  there  will  be,  at  no  great  distant  time,  more.  I 
have  also  heard  that  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio  will  be  far  to  the 
east  of  the  center  of  the  contemplated  empire.  .  .  .  You  have 
no  authority  to  throw  the  rights  and  property  of  this  people 
into  '  hotch-pot '  with  the  wild  men  on  the  Missouri,  nor  with 
the  mixed,  though  more  respectable,  race  of  Anglo-Hispano- 
Gallo-Americans  who  bask  on  the  sands  in  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi.  .  .  .  Do  you  suppose  the  people  of  the  Northern 
and  Atlantic  States  will,  or  ought  to,  look  on  with  patience 
and  see  Representatives  and  Senators  from  the  Red  River  and 
Missouri,  pouring  themselves  upon  this  and  the  other  floor, 
managing  the  concerns  of  a  seaboard  fifteen  hundred  miles,  at 
least,  from  their  residence;  and  having  a  preponderancy  in 
councils  into  which,  constitutionally,  they  could  never  have 
been  admitted?  " 

Like  an  echo  from  the  fears  expressed  by  the  East  at  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century  come  the  words  of  an  eminent 
Eastern  man  of  letters  2  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  in 

2  Charles  Eliot  Norton. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  WEST  209 

warning  against  the  West:  "  Materialized  in  their  temper;  with 
few  ideals  of  an  ennobling  sort;  little  instructed  in  the  lessons 
of  history;  safe  from  exposure  to  the  direct  calamities  and 
physical  horrors  of  war;  with  undeveloped  imaginations  and 
sympathies  —  they  form  a  community  unfortunate  and  dan 
gerous  from  the  possession  of  power  without  a  due  sense  of 
its  corresponding  responsibilities;  a  community  in  which  the 
passion  for  war  may  easily  be  excited  as  the  fancied  means  by 
which  its  greatness  may  be  convincingly  exhibited,  and  its 
ambitions  gratified.  .  .  .  Some  chance  spark  may  fire  the 
prairie." 

Here,  then,  is  the  problem  of  the  West,  as  it  looked  to  New 
England  leaders  of  thought  in  the  beginning  and  at  the  end 
of  this  century.  From  the  first,  it  was  recognized  that  a  new 
type  was  growing  up  beyond  the  seaboard,  and  that  the  time 
would  come  when  the  destiny  of  the  nation  would  be  in 
Western  hands.  The  divergence  of  these  societies  became 
clear  in  the  struggle  over  the  ratification  of  the  federal  constitu 
tion.  The  up-country  agricultural  regions,  the  communities 
that  were  in  debt  and  desired  paper  money,  with  some  Western 
exceptions,  opposed  the  instrument;  but  the  areas  of  intercourse 
and  property  carried  the  day. 

It  is  important  to  understand,  therefore,  what  were  some 
of  the  ideals  of  this  early  Western  democracy.  How  did  the 
frontiersman  differ  from  the  man  of  the  coast? 

The  most  obvious  fact  regarding  the  man  of  the  Western 
Waters  is  that  he  had  placed  himself  under  influences  destruc 
tive  to  many  of  the  gains  of  civilization.  Remote  from  the 
opportunity  for  systematic  education,  substituting  a  log  hut 
in  the  forest-clearing  for  the  social  comforts  of  the  town,  he 
suffered  hardships  and  privations,  and  reverted  in  many  ways 
to  primitive  conditions  of  life.  Engaged  in  a  struggle  to  sub 
due  the  forest,  working  as  an  individual,  and  with  little  specie 


or  capital,  his  interests  were  with  the  debtor  class.  At  each 
stage  of  its  advance,  the  West  has  favored  an  expansion  of 
the  currency.  The  pioneer  had  boundless  confidence  in  the 
future  of  his  own  community,  and  when  seasons  of  financial 
contraction  and  depression  occurred,  he,  who  had  staked  his 
all  on  confidence  in  Western  development,  and  had  fought  the 
savage  for  his  home,  was  inclined  to  reproach  the  conservative 
sections  and  classes.  To  explain  this  antagonism  requires 
more  than  denunciation  of  dishonesty,  ignorance,  and  boorish- 
ness  as  fundamental  Western  traits.  Legislation  in  the  United 
States  has  had  to  deal  with  two  distinct  social  conditions.  In 
some  portions  of  the  country  there  was,  and  is,  an  aggregation 
of  property,  and  vested  rights  are  in  the  foreground:  in  others, 
capital  is  lacking,  more  primitive  conditions  prevail,  with 
different  economic  and  social  ideals,  and  the  contentment  of 
the  average  individual  is  placed  in  the  foreground.  That  in 
the  conflict  between  these  two  ideals  an  even  hand  has  always 
been  held  by  the  government  would  be  difficult  to  show. 

The  separation  of  the  Western  man  from  the  seaboard,  and 
his  environment,  made  him  in  a  large  degree  free  from  Euro 
pean  precedents  and  forces.  He  looked  at  things  independ 
ently  and  with  small  regard  or  appreciation  for  the  best  Old 
World  experience.  He  had  no  ideal  of  a  philosophical,  eclec 
tic  nation,  that  should  advance  civilization  by  "  intercourse 
with  foreigners  and  familiarity  with  their  point  of  view,  and 
readiness  to  adopt  whatever  is  best  and  most  suitable  in  their 
ideas,  manners,  and  customs."  His  was  rather  the  ideal  of 
conserving  and  developing  what  was  original  and  valuable 
in  this  new  country.  The  entrance  of  old  society  upon  free 
lands  meant  to  him  opportunity  for  a  new  type  of  democracy 
and  new  popular  ideals.  The  West  was  not  conservative: 
buoyant  self-confidence  and  self-assertion  were  distinguishing 
traits  in  its  composition.  It  saw  in  its  growth  nothing  less 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  WEST  211 

than  a  new  order  of  society  and  state.     In  this  conception 
were  elements  of  evil  and  elements  of  good. 

But  the  fundamental  fact  in  regard  to  this  new  society  was 
its  relation  to  land.  Professor  Boutmy  has  said  of  the  United 
States,  "  Their  one  primary  and  predominant  object  is  to  cul 
tivate  and  settle  these  prairies,  forests,  and  vast  waste  lands. 
The  striking  and  peculiar  characteristic  of  American  society  is 
that  it  is  not  so  much  a  democracy  as  a  huge  commercial  com 
pany  for  the  discovery,  cultivation,  and  capitalization  of  its 
enormous  territory.  The  United  States  are  primarily  a  com 
mercial  society,  and  only  secondarily  a  nation."  Of  course, 
this  involves  a  serious  misapprehension.  By  the  very  fact  of 
the  task  here  set  forth,  far-reaching  ideals  of  the  state  and  of 
society  have  been  evolved  in  the  West,  accompanied  by  loyalty 
to  the  nation  representative  of  these  ideals.  But  M.  Boutmy's 
description  hits  the  substantial  fact,  that  the  fundamental 
traits  of  the  man  of  the  interior  were  due  to  the  free  lands  of 
the  West.  These  turned  his  attention  to  the  great  task  of  sub 
duing  them  to  the  purposes  of  civilization,  and  to  the  task  of  , 
advancing  his  economic  and  social  status  in  the  new  democ-  . 
racy  which  he  was  helping  to  create.  Art,  literature,  refine 
ment,  scientific  administration,  all  had  to  give  way  to  this 
Titanic  labor.  Energy,  incessant  activity,  became  the  lot  of 
this  new  American.  Says  a  traveler  of  the  time  of  Andrew 
Jackson,  "  America  is  like  a  vast  workshop,  over  the  door  of 
which  is  printed  in  blazing  characters,  '  No  admittance  here, 
except  on  business.'  "  The  West  of  our  own  day  reminds  Mr. 
Bryce  "  of  the  crowd  which  Vathek  found  in  the  hall  of  Eblis, 
each  darting  hither  and  thither  with  swift  steps  and  unquiet 
mien,  driven  to  and  fro  by  a  fire  in  the  heart.  Time  seems  too 
short  for  what  they  have  to  do,  and  the  result  always  to  come 
short  of  their  desire." 

But  free  lands  and  the  consciousness  of  working  out  their 


212       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

social  destiny  did  more  than  turn  the  Westerner  to  material 
interests  and  devote  him  to  a  restless  existence.  They  pro 
moted  equality  among  the  Western  settlers,  and  reacted  as  a 
check  on  the  aristocratic  influences  of  the  East.  Where  every 
body  could  have  a  farm,  almost  for  taking  it,  economic  equal 
ity  easily  resulted,  and  this  involved  political  equality.  Not 
without  a  struggle  would  the  Western  man  abandon  this  ideal, 
and  it  goes  far  to  explain  the  unrest  in  the  remote  West  to-day. 

Western  democracy  included  individual  liberty,  as  well  as 
equality.  The  frontiersman  was  impatient  of  restraints.  He 
knew  how  to  preserve  order,  even  in  the  absence  of  legal 
authority.  If  there  were  cattle  thieves,  lynch  law  was  sud 
den  and  effective:  the  regulators  of  the  Carolinas  were  the 
predecessors  of  the  claims  associations  of  Iowa  and  the  vigi 
lance  committees  of  California.  But  the  individual  was  not 
ready  to  submit  to  complex  regulations.  Population  was 
sparse,  there  was  no  multitude  of  jostling  interests,  as  in  older 
settlements,  demanding  an  elaborate  system  of  personal 
restraints.  Society  became  atomic.  There  was  a  reproduc 
tion  of  the  primitive  idea  of  the  personality  of  the  law,  a 
crime  was  more  an  offense  against  the  victim  than  a  violation 
of  the  law  of  the  land.  Substantial  justice,  secured  in  the 
most  direct  way,  was  the  ideal  of  the  backwoodsman.  He  had 
little  patience  with  finely  drawn  distinctions  or  scruples  of 
method.  If  the  thing  was  one  proper  to  be  done,  then  the 
most  immediate,  rough  and  ready,  effective  way  was  the  best 
way. 

It  followed  from  the  lack  of  organized  political  life,  from 
the  atomic  conditions  of  the  backwoods  society,  that  the  indi 
vidual  was  exalted  and  given  free  play.  The  West  was  another 
name  for  opportunity.  Here  were  mines  to  be  seized,  fertile 
valleys  to  be  preempted,  all  the  natural  resources  open  to  the 
shrewdest  and  the  boldest.  The  United  States  is  unique  in  the 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  WEST  213 

extent  to  which  the  individual  has  been  given  an  open  field, 
unchecked  by  restraints  of  an  old  social  order,  or  of  scientific 
administration  of  government.  The  self-made  man  was  the 
Western  man's  ideal,  was  the  kind  of  man  that  all  men  might 
become.  Out  of  his  wilderness  experience,  out  of  the  free 
dom  of  his  opportunities,  he  fashioned  a  formula  for  social 
regeneration, —  the  freedom  of  the  individual  to  seek  his 
own.  He  did  not  consider  that  his  conditions  were  exceptional 
and  temporary. 

Under  such  conditions,  leadership  easily  develops, —  a 
leadership  based  on  the  possession  of  the  qualities  most  serv 
iceable  to  the  young  society.  In  the  history  of  Western  set 
tlement,  we  see  each  forted  village  following  its  local  hero. 
Clay,  Jackson,  Harrison,  Lincoln,  were  illustrations  of  this 
tendency  in  periods  when  the  Western  hero  rose  to  the  dignity 
of  national  hero. 

The  Western  man  believed  in  the  manifest  destiny  of  his 
country.  On  his  border,  and  checking  his  advance,  were 
the  Indian,  the  Spaniard,  and  the  Englishman.  He  was  indig 
nant  at  Eastern  indifference  and  lack  of  sympathy  with  his 
view  of  his  relations  to  these  peoples;  at  the  short-sightedness 
of  Eastern  policy.  The  closure  of  the  Mississippi  by  Spain, 
and  the  proposal  to  exchange  our  claim  of  freedom  of  navi 
gating  the  river,  in  return  for  commercial  advantages  to  New 
England,  nearly  led  to  the  withdrawal  of  the  West  from  the 
Union.  It  was  the  Western  demands  that  brought  about  the 
purchase  of  Louisiana,  and  turned  the  scale  in  favor  of  declar 
ing  the  War  of  1812.  Militant  qualities  were  favored  by  the 
annual  expansion  of  the  settled  area  in  the  face  of  hostile  Indi 
ans  and  the  stubborn  wilderness.  The  West  caught  the  vision 
of  the  nation's  continental  destiny.  Henry  Adams,  in  his  His 
tory  of  the  United  States,  makes  the  American  of  1800  exclaim 
to  the  foreign  visitor,  "Look  at  my  wealth!  See  these  solid 


214       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

mountains  of  salt  and  iron,  of  lead,  copper,  silver,  and  gold. 
See  these  magnificent  cities  scattered  broadcast  to  the  Pacific! 
See  my  cornfields  rustling  and  waving  in  the  summer  breeze 
from  ocean  to  ocean,  so  far  that  the  sun  itself  is  not  high 
enough  to  mark  where  the  distant  mountains  bound  my  golden 
seas.  Look  at  this  continent  of  mine,  fairest  of  created  worlds, 
as  she  lies  turning  up  to  the  sun's  never  failing  caress  her 
broad  and  exuberant  breasts,  overflowing  with  milk  for  her 
hundred  million  children."  And  the  foreigner  saw  only 
dreary  deserts,  tenanted  by  sparse,  ague-stricken  pioneers  and 
savages.  The  cities  were  log  huts  and  gambling  dens.  But 
the  frontiersman's  dream  was  prophetic.  In  spite  of  his 
rude,  gross  nature,  this  early  Western  man  was  an  idealist 
withal.  He  dreamed  dreams  and  beheld  visions.  He  had 
faith  in  man,  hope  for  democracy,  belief  in  America's  destiny, 
unbounded  confidence  in  his  ability  to  make  his  dreams  come 
true.  Said  Harriet  Martineau  in  1834,  "  I  regard  the  Amer 
ican  people  as  a  great  embryo  poet,  now  moody,  now  wild, 
but  bringing  out  results  of  absolute  good  sense:  restless  and 
wayward  in  action,  but  with  deep  peace  at  his  heart;  exulting 
that  he  has  caught  the  true  aspect  of  things  past,  and  the 
depth  of  futurity  which  lies  before  him,  wherein  to  create 
something  so  magnificent  as  the  world  has  scarcely  begun  to 
dream  of.  There  is  the  strongest  hope  of  a  nation  that  is 
capable  of  being  possessed  with  an  idea." 

It  is  important  to  bear  this  idealism  of  the  West  in  mind. 
The  very  materialism  that  has  been  urged  against  the  West 
was  accompanied  by  ideals  of  equality,  of  the  exaltation  of 
the  common  man,  of  national  expansion,  that  makes  it  a 
profound  mistake  to  write  of  the  West  as  though  it  were 
engrossed  in  mere  material  ends.  It  has  been,  and  is,  preemi 
nently  a  region  of  ideals,  mistaken  or  not. 

It  is  obvious  that  these  economic  and  social  conditions  werb 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  WEST  215 

so  fundamental  in  Western  life  that  they  might  well  dom 
inate  whatever  accessions  came  to  the  West  by  immigration 
from  the  coast  sections  or  from  Europe.  Nevertheless,  the 
West  cannot  be  understood  without  bearing  in  mind  the  fact 
that  it  has  received  the  great  streams  from  the  North  and 
from  the  South,  and  that  the  Mississippi  compelled  these  cur 
rents  to  intermingle.  Here  it  was  that  sectionalism  first  gave 
way  under  the  pressure  of  unification.  Ultimately  the  con 
flicting  ideas  and  institutions  of  the  old  sections  struggled 
for  dominance  in  this  area  under  the  influence  of  the  forces 
that  made  for  uniformity,  but  this  is  merely  another  phase  of 
the  truth  that  the  West  must  become  unified,  that  it  could  not 
rest  in  sectional  groupings.  For  precisely  this  reason  the 
struggle  occurred.  In  the  period  from  the  Revolution  to  the 
close  of  the  War  of  1812,  the  democracy  of  the  Southern  and 
Middle  States  contributed  the  main  streams  of  settlement  and 
social  influence  to  the  West.  Even  in  Ohio  political  power 
was  soon  lost  by  the  New  England  leaders.  The  democratic 
spirit  of  the  Middle  region  left  an  indelible  impress  on  the 
West  in  this  its  formative  period.  After  the  War  of  1812, 
New  England,  its  supremacy  in  the  carrying  trade  of  the 
world  having  vanished,  became  a  hive  from  which  swarms 
of  settlers  went  out  to  western  New  York  and  the  remoter 
regions. 

These  settlers  spread  New  England  ideals  of  education  and 
character  and  political  institutions,  and  acted  as  a  leaven 
of  great  significance  in  the  Northwest.  But  it  would  be  a 
mistake  to  believe  that  an  unmixed  New  England  influence 
took  possession  of  the  Northwest.  These  pioneers  did  not 
come  from  the  class  that  conserved  the  type  of  New  England 
civilization  pure  and  undefiled.  They  represented  a  less  con 
tented,  less  conservative  influence.  Moreover,  by  their  sojourn 
in  the  Middle  Region,  on  their  westward  march,  they  underwent 


216       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

modification,  and  when  the  farther  West  received  them,  they 
suffered  a  forest-change,  indeed.  The  Westernized  New  Eng 
land  man  was  no  longer  the  representative  of  the  section  that  he 
left.  He  was  less  conservative,  less  provincial,  more  adapt 
able  and  approachable,  less  rigorous  in  his  Puritan  ideals, 
less  a  man  of  culture,  more  a  man  of  action. 

As  might  have  been  expected,  therefore,  the  Western  men, 
in  the  "  era  of  good  feeling,"  had  much  homogeneity  throughout 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  began  to  stand  as  a  new  national 
type.  Under  the  lead  of  Henry  Clay  they  invoked  the  national 
government  to  break  down  the  mountain  barrier  by  internal 
improvements,  and  thus  to  give  their  crops  an  outlet  to  the 
coast.  Under  him  they  appealed  to  the  national  government 
for  a  protective  tariff  to  create  a  home  market.  A  group  of 
frontier  States  entered  the  Union  with  democratic  provisions 
respecting  the  suffrage,  and  with  devotion  to  the  nation  that 
had  given  them  their  lands,  built  their  roads  and  canals,  reg 
ulated  their  territorial  life,  and  made  them  equals  in  the  sister 
hood  of  States.  At  last  these  Western  forces  of  aggressive 
nationalism  and  democracy  took  possession  of  the  govern 
ment  in  the  person  of  the  man  who  best  embodied  them, 
Andrew  Jackson.  This  new  democracy  that  captured  the  coun 
try  and  destroyed  the  ideals  of  statesmanship  came  from  no 
theorist's  dreams  of  the  German  forest.  It  came,  stark  and 
strong  and  full  of  life,  from  the  American  forest.  But  the 
triumph  of  this  Western  democracy  revealed  also  the  fact  that 
it  could  rally  to  its  aid  the  laboring  classes  of  the  coast, 
then  just  beginning  to  acquire  self-consciousness  and  organiza 
tion. 

The  next  phase  of  Western  development  revealed  forces  of 
division  between  the  northern  and  southern  portions  of  the 
West.  With  the  spread  of  the  cotton  culture  went  the  slave 
system  and  the  great  plantation.  The  small  farmer  in  his  log 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  WEST  217 

cabin,  raising  varied  crops,  was  displaced  by  the  planter 
raising  cotton.  In  all  except  the  mountainous  areas  the  indus 
trial  organization  of  the  tidewater  took  possession  of  the 
Southwest,  the  unity  of  the  back  country  was  broken,  and  the 
solid  South  was  formed.  In  the  Northwest  this  was  the  era 
of  railroads  and  canals,  opening  the  region  to  the  increasing 
stream  of  Middle  State  and  New  England  settlement,  and 
strengthening  the  opposition  to  slavery.  A  map  showing  the 
location  of  the  men  of  New  England  ancestry  in  the  North 
west  would  represent  also  the  counties  in  which  the  Free  Soil 
party  cast  its  heaviest  votes.  The  commercial  connections  of 
the  Northwest  likewise  were  reversed  by  the  railroad.  The 
result  is  stated  by  a  writer  in  De  Bow's  Review  in  1852  in 
these  words:  — 

"What  is  New  Orleans  now?  Where  are  her  dreams  of 
greatness  and  glory?  .  .  .  Whilst  she  slept,  an  enemy  has 
sowed  tares  in  her  most  prolific  fields.  Armed  with  energy, 
enterprise,  and  an  indomitable  spirit,  that  enemy,  by  a  system 
of  bold,  vigorous,  and  sustained  efforts,  has  succeeded  in 
reversing  the  very  laws  of  nature  and  of  nature's  God, — 
rolled  back  the  mighty  tide  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  thousand 
tributary  streams,  until  their  mouth,  practically  and  commer 
cially,  is  more  at  New  York  or  Boston  than  at  New  Orleans." 

The  West  broke  asunder,  and  the  great  struggle  over  the 
social  system  to  be  given  to  the  lands  beyond  the  Mississippi 
followed.  In  the  Civil  War  the  Northwest  furnished  the 
national  hero, —  Lincoln  was  the  very  flower  of  frontier  train 
ing  and  ideals, —  and  it  also  took  into  its  hands  the  whole 
power  of  the  government.  Before  the  war  closed,  the  West 
could  claim  the  President,  Vice-President,  Chief  Justice, 
Speaker  of  the  House,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Postmaster- 
General,  Attorney-General,  General  of  the  army,  and  Admiral 
of  the  navy.  The  leading  generals  of  the  war  had  been  fur- 


218       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

nished  by  the  West.  It  was  the  region  of  action,  and  in  the 
crisis  it  took  the  reins. 

The  triumph  of  the  nation  was  followed  by  a  new  era  of 
Western  development.  The  national  forces  projected  them 
selves  across  the  prairies  and  plains.  Railroads,  fostered  by 
government  loans  and  land  grants,  opened  the  way  for  settle 
ment  and  poured  a  flood  of  European  immigrants  and  restless 
pioneers  from  all  sections  of  the  Union  into  the  government 
lands.  The  army  of  the  United  States  pushed  back  the  Indian, 
rectangular  Territories  were  carved  into  checkerboard  States, 
creations  of  the  federal  government,  without  a  history,  with 
out  physiographical  unity,  without  particularistic  ideas.  The 
later  frontiersman  leaned  on  the  strong  arm  of  national  power. 

At  the  same  time  the  South  underwent  a  revolution.  The 
plantation,  based  on  slavery,  gave  place  to  the  farm,  the  gentry 
to  the  democratic  elements.  As  in  the  West,  new  industries, 
of  mining  and  of  manufacture,  sprang  up  as  by  magic.  The 
New  South,  like  the  New  West,  was  an  area  of  construction,  a 
debtor  area,  an  area  of  unrest;  and  it,  too,  had  learned  the 
uses  to  which  federal  legislation  might  be  put. 

In  the  meantime  the  Old  Northwest 8  passed  through  an 
economic  and  social  transformation.  The  whole  West  fur 
nished  an  area  over  which  successive  waves  of  economic  devel 
opment  have  passed.  The  State  of  Wisconsin,  now  much  like 
parts  of  the  State  of  New  York,  was  at  an  earlier  period  like 
the  State  of  Nebraska  of  to-day;  the  Granger  movement  and 
Greenback  party  had  for  a  time  the  ascendancy;  and  in  the 
northern  counties  of  the  Slate,  where  there  is  a  sparser  popu 
lation,  and  the  country  is  being  settled,  its  sympathies  are  still 
with  the  debtor  class.  Thus  the  Old  Northwest  is  a  region 
where  the  older  frontier  conditions  survive  in  parts,  and  where 

8  The  present  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wis 
consin. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  WEST  219 

the  inherited  ways  of  looking  at  things  are  largely  to  be  traced 
to  its  frontier  days.  At  the  same  time  it  is  a  region  in  many 
ways  assimilated  to  the  East.  It  understands  both  sections. 
It  is  not  entirely  content  with  the  existing  structure  of  economic 
society  in  the  sections  where  wealth  has  accumulated  and  cor 
porate  organizations  are  powerful;  but  neither  has  it  seemed 
to  feel  that  its  interests  lie  in  supporting  the  program  of  the 
prairies  and  the  South.  In  the  Fifty-third  Congress  it  voted 
for  the  income  tax,  but  it  rejected  free  coinage.  It  is  still 
affected  by  the  ideal  of  the  self-made  man,  rather  than  by  the 
ideal  of  industrial  nationalism.  It  is  more  American,  but  less 
cosmopolitan  than  the  seaboard. 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  see  clearly  some  of  the  factors 
involved  in  the  Western  problem.  For  nearly  three  centuries 
the  dominant  fact  in  American  life  has  been  expansion.  With 
the  settlement  of  the  Pacific  coast  and  the  occupation  of  the 
free  lands,  this  movement  has  come  to  a  check.  That  these 
energies  of  expansion  will  no  longer  operate  would  be  a  rash 
prediction;  and  the  demands  for  a  vigorous  foreign  policy,  for 
an  interoceanic  canal,  for  a  revival  of  our  power  upon  the 
seas,  and  for  the  extension  of  American  influence  to  outlying 
islands  and  adjoining  countries,  are  indications  that  the  move 
ment  will  continue.  The  stronghold  of  these  demands  lies 
west  of  the  Alleghanies. 

In  the  remoter  West,  the  restless,  rushing  wave  of  settlement 
has  broken  with  a  shock  against  the  arid  plains.  The  free 
lands  are  gone,  the  continent  is  crossed,  and  all  this  push  and 
energy  is  turning  into  channels  of  agitation.  Failures  in  one 
area  can  no  longer  be  made  good  by  taking  up  land  on  a  new 
frontier;  the  conditions  of  a  settled  society  are  being  reached 
with  suddenness  and  with  confusion.  The  West  has  been  built 
up  with  borrowed  capital,  and  the  question  of  the  stability  of 
gold,  as  a  standard  of  deferred  payments,  is  eagerly  agitated 


220       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

by  the  debtor  West,  profoundly  dissatisfied  with  the  industrial 
conditions  that  confront  it,  and  actuated  by  frontier  directness 
and  rigor  in  its  remedies.  For  the  most  part,  the  men  who 
built  up  the  West  beyond  the  Mississippi,  and  who  are  now 
leading  the  agitation,4  came  as  pioneers  from  the  old  North 
west,  in  the  days  when  it  was  just  passing  from  the  stage  of  a 
frontier  section.  For  example,  Senator  Allen  of  Nebraska, 
president  of  the  recent  national  Populist  Convention,  and  a 
type  of  the  political  leaders  of  his  section,  was  born  in  Ohio 
in  the  middle  of  the  century,  went  in  his  youth  to  Iowa,  and 
not  long  after  the  Civil  War  made  his  home  in  Nebraska.  As 
a  boy,  he  saw  the  buffalo  driven  out  by  the  settlers;  he  saw 
the  Indian  retreat  as  the  pioneer  advanced.  His  training  is 
that  of  the  old  West,  in  its  frontier  days.  And  now  the  fron 
tier  opportunities  are  gone.  Discontent  is  demanding  an 
extension  of  governmental  activity  in  its  behalf.  In  these 
demands,  it  finds  itself  in  touch  with  the  depressed  agricultural 
classes  and  the  workingmen  of  the  South  and  East.  The 
Western  problem  is  no  longer  a  sectional  problem:  it  is  a 
social  problem  on  a  national  scale.  The  greater  West,  extend 
ing  from  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Pacific,  cannot  be  regarded 
as  a  unit;  it  requires  analysis  into  regions  and  classes.  But 
its  area,  its  population,  and  its  material  resources  would  give 
force  to  its  assertion  that  if  there  is  a  sectionalism  in  the 
country,  the  sectionalism  is  Eastern.  The  old  West,  united 
to  the  new  South,  would  produce,  not  a  new  sectionalism,  but 
a  new  Americanism.  It  would  not  mean  sectional  disunion, 
as  some  have  speculated,  but  it  might  mean  a  drastic  assertion 
of  national  government  and  imperial  expansion  under  a  pop 
ular  hero. 

This,  then,   is  the   real   situation:   a   people   composed   of 
heterogeneous  materials,   with  diverse  and  conflicting  ideals 

4  [Written  in  the  year  of  Mr.  Bryan's  first  presidential  campaign.] 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  WEST  221 

and  social  interests,  having  passed  from  the  task  of  filling  up 
the  vacant  spaces  of  the  continent,  is  now  thrown  back  upon 
itself,  and  is  seeking  an  equilibrium.  The  diverse  elements  are 
being  fused  into  national  unity.  The  forces  of  reorganiza 
tion  are  turbulent  and  the  nation  seems  like  a  witches'  kettle. 

But  the  West  has  its  own  centers  of  industrial  life  and  culture 
not  unlike  those  of  the  East.  It  has  State  universities,  rivaling 
in  conservative  and  scientific  economic  instruction  those  of  any 
other  part  of  the  Union,  and  its  citizens  more  often  visit  the 
East,  than  do  Eastern  men  the  West.  As  time  goes  on,  its 
industrial  development  will  bring  it  more  into  harmony  with 
the  East. 

Moreover,  the  Old  Northwest  holds  the  balance  of  power, 
and  is  the  battlefield  on  which  these  issues  of  American  devel 
opment  are  to  be  settled.  It  has  more  in  common  with  all 
parts  of  the  nation  than  has  any  other  region.  It  understands 
the  East,  as  the  East  does  not  understand  the  West.  The 
White  City  which  recently  rose  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan 
fitly  typified  its  growing  culture  as  well  as  its  capacity  for 
great  achievement.  Its  complex  and  representative  industrial 
organization  and  business  ties,  its  determination  to  hold  fast 
to  what  is  original  and  good  in  its  Western  experience,  and  its 
readiness  to  learn  and  receive  the  results  of  the  experience  of 
other  sections  and  nations,  make  it  an  open-minded  and  safe 
arbiter  of  the  American  destiny. 

In  the  long  run  the  **  Center  of  the  Republic "  may  be 
trusted  to  strike  a  wise  balance  between  the  contending  ideals. 
But  she  does  not  deceive  herself;  she  knows  that  the  problem 
of  the  West  means  nothing  less  than  the  problem  of  working 
out  original  social  ideals  and  social  adjustments  for  the  Amer 
ican  nation. 


VIII 
DOMINANT  FORCES  IN  WESTERN  LiFE1 

The  Old  Northwest  is  a  name  which  tells  of  the  vestiges 
which  the  march  of  settlement  across  the  American  continent 
has  left  behind  it.  The  New  Northwest  fronts  the  watery 
labyrinth  of  Puget  Sound  and  awaits  its  destiny  upon  the 
Pacific.  The  Old  Northwest,  the  historic  Northwest  Territory, 
is  now  the  new  Middle  Region  of  the  United  States.  A  century 
ago  it  was  a  wilderness,  broken  only  by  a  few  French  settle 
ments  and  the  straggling  American  hamlets  along  the  Ohio 
and  its  tributaries,  while,  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  Moses 
Cleaveland  had  just  led  a  handful  of  men  to  the  Connecticut 
Reserve.  To-day  it  is  the  keystone  of  the  American  Common 
wealth.  Since  1860  the  center  of  population  of  the  United 
States  has  rested  within  its  limits,  and  the  center  of  manufac 
turing  in  the  nation  lies  eight  miles  from  President  McKinley's 
Ohio  home.  Of  the  seven  men  who  have  been  elected  to  the 
presidency  of  the  United  States  since  1860,  six  have  come 
from  the  Old  Northwest,  and  the  seventh  came  from  the  kin 
dred  region  of  western  New  York.  The  congressional  Repre 
sentatives  from  these  five  States  of  the  Old  Northwest  already 
outnumber  those  from  the  old  Middle  States,  and  are  three 
times  as  numerous  as  those  from  New  England. 

The  elements  that  have  contributed  to  the  civilization  of 
this  region  are  therefore  well  worth  consideration.  To  know 
the  States  that  make  up  the  Old  Northwest  —  Ohio,  Indiana, 

1  Atlantic  Monthly,  April,  1897.     Published  by  permission. 

222 


DOMINANT  FORCES  IN  WESTERN  LIFE        223 

Illinois,  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  —  one  must  understand  their 
social  origins. 

Eldest  in  this  sisterhood  was  Ohio.  New  England  gave  the 
formative  impulses  to  this  State  by  the  part  which  the  Ohio 
Company  played  in  securing  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  and  at 
Marietta  and  Cleveland  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  planted 
enduring  centers  of  Puritan  influence.  During  the  same  period 
New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  sent  their  colonists  to  the 
Symmes  Purchase,  in  which  Cincinnati  was  the  rallying-point, 
while  Virginians  sought  the  Military  Bounty  Lands  in  the  re 
gion  of  Chillicothe.  The  Middle  States  and  the  South,  with 
their  democratic  ideas,  constituted  the  dominant  element  in 
Ohio  politics  in  the  early  part  of  her  history.  This  dominance 
is  shown  by  the  nativity  of  the  members  of  the  Ohio  legislature 
elected  in  1820:  New  England  furnished  nine  Senators  and 
sixteen  Representatives,  chiefly  from  Connecticut;  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania,  seventeen  Senators  and  twenty- 
one  Representatives,  mostly  from  Pennsylvania;  while  the 
South  furnished  nine  Senators  and  twenty-seven  Representa 
tives,  of  whom  the  majority  came  from  Virginia.  Five  of  the 
Representatives  were  native  of  Ireland,  presumably  Scotch- 
Irishmen.  In  the  Ohio  Senate,  therefore,  the  Middle  States 
had  as  many  representatives  as  had  New  England  and  the 
South  together,  while  the  Southern  men  slightly  outnumbered 
the  Middle  States  men  in  the  Assembly.  Together,  the  emi 
grants  from  the  Democratic  South  and  Middle  Region  outnum 
bered  the  Federalist  New  Englanders  three  to  one.  Although 
Ohio  is  popularly  considered  a  child  of  New  England,  it  is 
clear  that  in  these  formative  years  of  her  statehood  the  com 
monwealth  was  dominated  by  other  forces. 

By  the  close  of  this  early  period,  in  1820,  the  settlement  in 
Ohio  had  covered  more  or  less  fully  all  except  the  northwest 
corner  of  the  State,  and  Indiana's  formative  period  was  well 


224       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

started.  Here,  as  in  Ohio,  there  was  a  large  Southern  element. 
But  while  the  Southern  stream  that  flowed  into  Ohio  had  its 
sources  in  Virginia,  the  main  current  that  sought  Indiana  came 
from  North  Carolina;  and  these  settlers  were  for  the  most 
part  from  the  humbler  classes.  In  the  settlement  of  Indiana 
from  the  South  two  separate  elements  are  distinguishable:  the 
Quaker  migration  from  North  Carolina,  moving  chiefly  because 
of  anti-slavery  convictions;  the  "  poor  white  "  stream,  made 
up  in  part  of  restless  hunters  and  thriftless  pioneers  moving 
without  definite  ambitions,  and  in  part  of  other  classes,  such 
as  former  overseers,  migrating  to  the  new  country  with  definite 
purpose  of  improving  their  fortunes. 

These  elements  constituted  well-marked  features  in  the  South 
ern  contribution  to  Indiana,  and  they  explain  why  she  has 
been  named  the  Hoosier  State;  but  it  should  by  no  means  be 
thought  that  all  of  the  Southern  immigrants  came  under  these 
classes,  nor  that  these  have  been  the  normal  elements  in  the 
development  of  the  Indiana  of  to-day.  In  the  Northwest, 
where  interstate  migration  has  been  so  continuous  and  wide 
spread,  the  lack  of  typical  State  peculiarities  is  obvious,  and 
the  student  of  society,  like  the  traveler,  is  tempted,  in  his 
effort  to  distinguish  the  community  from  its  neighbors,  to 
exaggerate  the  odd  and  exceptional  elements  which  give  a 
particular  flavor  to  the  State.  Indiana  has  suffered  somewhat 
from  this  tendency;  but  it  is  undoubted  that  these  peculiarities 
of  origin  left  deep  and  abiding  influences  upon  the  State.  In 
1820  her  settlement  was  chiefly  in  the  southern  counties,  where 
Southern  and  Middle  States  influence  was  dominant.  Her 
two  United  States  Senators  were  Virginians  by  birth,  while 
her  Representative  was  from  Pennsylvania.  The  Southern 
element  continued  so  powerful  that  one  student  of  Indiana 
origins  has  estimated  that  in  1850  one-third  of  the  popula 
tion  of  the  State  were  native  Carolinians  and  their  children 


in  the  first  generation.  Not  until  a  few  years  before  the  Civil 
War  did  the  Northern  current  exert  a  decisive  influence  upon 
Indiana.  She  had  no  such  lake  ports  as  had  her  sister  States, 
and  extension  of  settlement  into  the  State  from  ports  like 
Chicago  was  interrupted  by  the  less  attractive  area  of  the  north 
western  part  of  Indiana.  Add  to  this  the  geological  fact  that 
the  limestone  ridges  and  the  best  soils  ran  in  nearly  perpen 
dicular  belts  northward  from  the  Ohio,  and  it  will  be  seen  how 
circumstances  combined  to  diminish  Northern  and  to  facili 
tate  Southern  influences  in  the  State  prior  to  the  railroad  devel 
opment. 

In  Illinois,  also,  the  current  of  migration  was  at  first  pre 
ponderantly  Southern,  but  the  settlers  were  less  often  from 
the  Atlantic  coast.  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  were  generous 
contributors,  but  many  of  the  distinguished  leaders  came  from 
Virginia,  and  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  1820  the  two  United 
States  Senators  of  Illinois  were  of  Maryland  ancestry,  while 
her  Representative  was  of  Kentucky  origin.  The  swarms  of 
land-seekers  between  1820  and  1830  ascended  the  Illinois 
river,  and  spread  out  between  that  river  and  the  Mississippi. 
It  was  in  this  period  that  Abraham  Lincoln's  father,  who  had 
come  from  Kentucky  to  Indiana,  again  left  his  log  cabin  and 
traveled  by  ox-team  with  his  family  to  the  popular  Illinois 
county  of  Sangamon.  Here  Lincoln  split  his  famous  rails 
to  fence  their  land,  and  grew  up  under  the  influences  of  this 
migration  of  the  Southern  pioneers  to  the  prairies.  They 
were  not  predominantly  of  the  planter  class;  but  the  fierce  con 
test  in  1824  over  the  proposition  to  open  Illinois  to  slavery  was 
won  for  freedom  by  a  narrow  majority. 

Looking  at  the  three  States,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois, 
prior  to  1850,  we  perceive  how  important  was  the  voice  of  the 
South  here,  and  we  can  the  more  easily  understand  the  early 
affiliation  of  the  Northwest  with  her  sister  States  to  the  south 


226       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

on  the  Western  waters.  It  was  not  without  reason  that  the 
proposal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  came  from  Illinois,  and 
it  was  a  natural  enthusiasm  with  which  these  States  followed 
Henry  Clay  in  the  war  policy  of  1812.  The  combination  of 
the  South,  the  western  portion  of  the  Middle  States,  and  the 
Mississippi  Valley  gave  the  ascendancy  to  the  democratic 
ideals  of  the  followers  of  Jefferson,  and  left  New  England  a 
weakened  and  isolated  section  for  nearly  half  a  century. 
Many  of  the  most  characteristic  elements  in  American  life  in 
the  first  part  of  the  century  were  due  to  this  relationship 
between  the  South  and  the  trans-Alleghany  region.  But  even 
thus  early  the  Northwest  had  revealed  strong  predilections 
for  the  Northern  economic  ideals  as  against  the  peculiar  insti 
tution  of  the  South,  and  this  tendency  grew  with  the  increase 
of  New  England  immigration. 

The  northern  two  in  this  sisterhood  of  Northwestern  States 
were  the  first  to  be  entered  by  the  French,  but  latest  by  the 
English  settlers.  Why  Michigan  was  not  occupied  by  New 
York  men  at  an  earlier  period  is  at  first  sight  not  easy  to 
understand.  Perhaps  the  adverse  reports  of  surveyors  who 
visited  the  interior  of  the  State,  the  partial  geographical  isola 
tion,  and  the  unprogressive  character  of  the  French  settlers 
account  for  the  tardy  occupation  of  the  area.  Certain  it  is 
that  while  the  southern  tier  of  States  was  sought  by  swarms 
of  settlers,  Wisconsin  and  Michigan  still  echoed  to  Canadian 
boating-songs,  and  voyageurs  paddled  their  birch  canoes  along 
the  streams  of  the  wilderness  to  traffic  with  the  savages.  Great 
Britain  maintained  the  dominant  position  until  after  the  War 
of  1812,  and  the  real  center  of  authority  was  in  Canada. 

But  after  the  digging  of  the  Erie  Canal,  settlement  began 
to  turn  into  Michigan.  Between  1830  and  1840  the  popula 
tion  of  the  State  leaped  from  31,000  to  212,000,  in  the  face 
of  the  fact  that  the  heavy  debt  of  the  State  and  the  crisis  of 


DOMINANT  FORCES  IN  WESTERN  LIFE        227 

1837  turned  from  her  borders  many  of  the  thrifty,  debt-hating 
Germans.  The  vast  majority  of  the  settlers  were  New  Yorkers. 
Michigan  is  distinctly  a  child  of  the  Empire  State.  Canadians, 
both  French  and  English,  continued  to  come  as  the  lumber 
interests  of  the  region  increased.  By  1850  Michigan  con 
tained  nearly  400,000  inhabitants,  who  occupied  the  southern 
half  of  the  State. 

But  she  now  found  an  active  competitor  for  settlement  in 
Wisconsin.  In  this  region  two  forces  had  attracted  the  earlier 
inhabitants.  The  fur-trading  posts  of  Green  Bay,  Prairie  du 
Chien,  and  Milwaukee  constituted  one  element,  in  which  the 
French  influence  was  continued.  The  lead  region  of  the  south 
west  corner  of  the  State  formed  the  center  of  attraction  for 
Illinois  and  Southern  pioneers.  The  soldiers  who  followed 
Black  Hawk's  trail  in  1832  reported  the  richness  of  the  soil, 
and  an  era  of  immigration  followed.  To  the  port  of  Mil 
waukee  came  a  combined  migration  from  western  New  York 
and  New  England,  and  spread  along  the  southern  tier  of  prairie 
counties  until  it  met  the  Southern  settlers  in  the  lead  region. 
Many  of  the  early  political  contests  in  the  State  were  con 
nected,  as  in  Ohio  and  Illinois,  with  the  antagonisms  between 
the  sections  thus  brought  together  in  a  limited  area. 

The  other  element  in  the  formation  of  Wisconsin  was  that 
of  the  Germans,  then  just  entering  upon  their  vast  immigration 
to  the  United  States.  Wisconsin  was  free  from  debt;  she  made 
a  constitution  of  exceptional  liberality  to  foreigners,  and 
instead  of  treasuring  her  school  lands  or  using  them  for  inter 
nal  improvements,  she  sold  them  for  almost  nothing  to  attract 
immigration.  The  result  was  that  the  prudent  Germans,  who 
loved  light  taxes  and  cheap  hard  wood  lands,  turned  toward 
Wisconsin, —  another  Vdlkerwanderung.  From  Milwaukee  as 
a  center  they  spread  north  along  the  shore  of  Lake  Michigan, 
and  later  into  northern  central  Wisconsin,  following  the  belt 


228       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  the  hardwood  forests.  So  considerable  were  their  numbers 
that  such  an  economist  as  Roscher  wrote  of  the  feasibility  of 
making  Wisconsin  a  German  State.  "  They  can  plant  the  vine 
on  the  hills,"  cried  Franz  Loher  in  1847,  "  and  drink  with 
happy  song  and  dance;  they  can  have  German  schools  and 
universities,  German  literature  and  art,  German  science  and 
philosophy,  German  courts  and  assemblies;  in  short,  they  can 
form  a  German  State,  in  which  the  German  language  shall  be 
as  much  the  popular  and  official  language  as  the  English  is 
now,  and  in  which  the  German  spirit  shall  rule."  By  1860 
the  German-born  were  sixteen  per  cent  of  the  population  of 
the  State.  But  the  New  York  and  New  England  stream  proved 
even  more  broad  and  steady  in  its  flow  in  these  years  before 
the  war.  Wisconsin's  population  rose  from  30,000  in  1840 
to  300,000  in  1850. 

The  New  England  element  that  entered  this  State  is  prob 
ably  typical  of  the  same  element  in  Wisconsin's  neighboring 
States,  and  demands  notice.  It  came  for  the  most  part,  not 
from  the  seaboard  of  Massachusetts,  which  has  so  frequently 
represented  New  England  to  the  popular  apprehension.  A 
large  element  in  this  stock  was  the  product  of  the  migration 
that  ascended  the  valleys  of  Connecticut  and  central  Massa 
chusetts  through  the  hills  into  Vermont  and  New  York, —  a 
pioneer  folk  almost  from  the  time  of  their  origin.  The  Ver 
mont  colonists  decidedly  outnumbered  those  of  Massachusetts 
in  both  Michigan  and  Wisconsin,  and  were  far  more  numerous 
in  other  Northwestern  States  than  the  population  of  Vermont 
warranted.  Together  with  this  current  came  the  settlers  from 
western  New  York.  These  were  generally  descendants  of  this 
same  pioneer  New  England  stock,  continuing  into  a  remoter 
West  the  movement  that  had  brought  their  parents  to  New 
York.  The  combined  current  from  New  England  and  New 
York  thus  constituted  a  distinctly  modified  New  England  stock, 


DOMINANT  FORCES  IN  WESTERN  LIFE        229 

and  was  clearly  the  dominant  native  element  in  Michigan  and 
Wisconsin. 

The  decade  of  the  forties  was  also  the  period  of  Iowa's 
rapid  increase.  Although  not  politically  a  part  of  the  Old 
Northwest,  in  history  she  is  closely  related  to  that  region. 
Her  growth  was  by  no  means  so  rapid  as  was  Wisconsin's,  for 
the  proportion  of  foreign  immigration  was  less.  Whereas  in 
1850  more  than  one-third  of  Wisconsin's  population  was  for 
eign-born,  the  proportion  for  Iowa  was  not  much  over  one- 
tenth.  The  main  body  of  her  people  finally  came  from  the 
Middle  States,  and  Illinois  and  Ohio;  but  Southern  elements 
were  well  represented,  particularly  among  her  political  leaders. 

The  middle  of  the  century  was  the  turning-point  in  the  trans 
fer  of  control  in  the  Northwest.  Below  the  line  of  the  old 
national  turnpike,  marked  by  the  cities  of  Columbus,  Indianap 
olis,  Vandalia,  and  St.  Louis,  the  counties  had  acquired  a 
stability  of  settlement;  and  partly  because  of  the  Southern 
element,  partly  because  of  a  natural  tendency  of  new  commu 
nities  toward  Jacksonian  ideals,  these  counties  were  prepon 
derantly  Democratic.  But  the  Southern  migration  had  turned 
to  the  cotton  areas  of  the  Southwest,  and  the  development  of 
railroads  and  canals  had  broken  the  historic  commercial 
ascendancy  of  the  Mississippi  River;  New  Orleans  was  yielding 
the  scepter  to  New  York.  The  tide  of  migration  from  the 
North  poured  along  these  newly  opened  channels,  and  occu 
pied  the  less  settled  counties  above  the  national  turnpike.  In 
cities  like  Columbus  and  Indianapolis,  where  the  two  currents 
had  run  side  by  side,  the  combined  elements  were  most  clearly 
marked,  but  in  the  Northwest  as  a  whole  a  varied  population 
had  been  formed.  This  region  seemed  to  represent  and  under 
stand  the  various  parts  of  the  Union.  It  was  this  aspect 
which  Mr.  Vinton,  of  Ohio,  urged  in  Congress  when  he  made 
his  notable  speech  in  favor  of  the  admission  of  Iowa.  He 


230       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

pleaded  the  mission  of  the  Northwest  as  the  mediator  between 
the  sections  and  the  unifying  agency  in  the  nation,  with  such 
power  and  pathos  as  to  thrill  even  John  Quincy  Adams. 

But  there  are  some  issues  which  cannot  be  settled  by  com 
promise,  tendencies  one  of  which  must  conquer  the  other. 
Such  an  issue  the  slave  power  raised,  and  raised  too  late  for 
support  in  the  upper  half  of  the  Mississippi  Basin.  The 
Northern  and  the  Southern  elements  found  themselves  in  oppo 
sition  to  each  other.  "  A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot 
stand,"  said  Abraham  Lincoln,  a  Northern  leader  of  Southern 
origin.  Douglas,  a  leader  of  the  Southern  forces,  though 
coming  from  New  England,  declared  his  indifference  whether 
slavery  were  voted  up  or  down  in  the  Western  Territories. 
The  historic  debates  between  these  two  champions  reveal  the 
complex  conditions  in  the  Northwest,  and  take  on  a  new  mean 
ing  when  considered  in  the  light  of  this  contest  between  the 
Northern  and  the  Southern  elements.  The  State  that  had 
been  so  potent  for  compromise  was  at  last  the  battle-ground 
itself,  and  the  places  selected  for  the  various  debates  of  Lin 
coln  and  Douglas  marked  the  strongholds  and  the  outposts 
of  the  antagonistic  forces. 

At  this  time  the  kinship  of  western  New  York  and  the  dom 
inant  element  in  the  Northwest  was  clearly  revealed.  Speak 
ing  for  the  anti-slavery  forces  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  in  1860, 
Seward  said:  "  The  Northwest  is  by  no  means  so  small  as  you 
may  think  it.  I  speak  to  you  because  I  feel  that  I  am,  and 
during  all  my  mature  life  have  been,  one  of  you.  Although 
of  New  York,  I  am  still  a  citizen  of  the  Northwest.  The 
Northwest  extends  eastward  to  the  base  of  the  Alleghany 
Mountains,  and  does  not  all  of  western  New  York  lie  westward 
of  the  Alleghany  Mountains?  Whence  comes  all  the  inspira 
tion  of  free  soil  which  spreads  itself  with  such  cheerful  voices 
over  all  these  plains?  Why,  from  New  York  westward  of 


DOMINANT  FORCES  IN  WESTERN  LIFE        231 

the  Alleghany  Mountains.  The  people  before  me, —  who  are 
you  but  New  York  men,  while  you  are  men  of  the  North 
west?"  In  the  Civil  War,  western  New  York  and  the  North 
west  were  powerful  in  the  forum  and  in  the  field.  A  million 
soldiers  came  from  the  States  that  the  Ordinance,  passed  by 
Southern  votes,  had  devoted  to  freedom. 

This  was  the  first  grave  time  of  trial  for  the  Northwest,  and 
it  did  much  eventually  to  give  to  the  region  a  homogeneity  and 
self-consciousness.  But  at  the  close  of  the  war  the  region 
was  still  agricultural,  only  half -developed;  still  breaking 
ground  in  northern  forests;  still  receiving  contributions  of 
peoples  which  radically  modified  the  social  organism,  and 
undergoing  economic  changes  almost  revolutionary  in  their 
rapidity  and  extent.  The  changes  since  the  war  are  of  more 
social  importance,  in  many  respects,  than  those  in  the  years 
commonly  referred  to  as  the  formative  period.  As  a  result, 
the  Northwest  finds  herself  again  between  contending  forces, 
sharing  the  interests  of  East  and  West,  as  once  before  those 
of  North  and  South,  and  forced  to  give  her  voice  on  issues 
of  equal  significance  for  the  destiny  of  the  republic. 

In  these  transforming  years  since  1860,  Ohio,  finding  the 
magician's  talisman  that  revealed  the  treasury  of  mineral 
wealth,  gas,  and  petroleum  beneath  her  fields,  has  leaped  to  a 
front  rank  among  the  manufacturing  States  of  the  Union. 
Potential  on  the  Great  Lakes  by  reason  of  her  ports  of  Toledo 
and  Cleveland,  tapping  the  Ohio  river  artery  of  trade  at 
Cincinnati,  and  closely  connected  with  all  the  vast  material 
development  of  the  upper  waters  of  this  river  in  western 
Pennsylvania  and  West  Virginia,  Ohio  has  become  distinctly 
a  part  of  the  eastern  social  organism,  much  like  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania.  The  complexity  of  her  origin  still  persists. 
Ohio  has  no  preponderant  social  center;  her  multiplicity  of 
colleges  and  universities  bears  tribute  to  the  diversity  of  the 


232       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

elements  that  have  made  the  State.  One-third  of  her  people 
are  of  foreign  parentage  (one  or  both  parents  foreign-born), 
and  the  city  of  Cincinnati  has  been  deeply  affected  by  the 
German  stock,  while  Cleveland  strongly  reflects  the  influence 
of  the  New  England  element.  That  influence  is  still  very  pal 
pable,  but  it  is  New  England  in  the  presence  of  natural  gas, 
iron,  and  coal,  New  England  shaped  by  blast  and  forge. 
The  Middle  State  ideals  will  dominate  Ohio's  future. 
Bucolic  Indiana,  too,  within  the  last  decade  has  come  into 
the  possession  of  gas-fields  and  has  increased  the  exploitation 
of  her  coals  until  she  seems  destined  to  share  in  the  industrial 
type  represented  by  Ohio.  Cities  have  arisen,  like  a  dream,  on 
the  sites  of  country  villages.  But  Indiana  has  a  much  smaller 
proportion  of  foreign  elements  than  any  other  State  of  the 
Old  Northwest,  and  it  is  the  Southern  element  that  still  differ 
entiates  her  from  her  sisters.  While  Ohio's  political  leaders 
still  attest  the  Puritan  migration,  Indiana's  clasp  hands  with 
the  leaders  from  the  South. 

The  Southern  elements  continue  also  to  reveal  themselves  in 
the  Democratic  southwestern  counties  of  Illinois,  grouped  like 
a  broad  delta  of  the  Illinois  River,  while  northern  Illinois 
holds  a  larger  proportion  of  descendants  of  the  Middle  States 
and  New  England.  About  one-half  her  population  is  of  for 
eign  parentage,  in  which  the  German,  Irish,  and  Scandinavians 
furnish  the  largest  elements.  She  is  a  great  agricultural  State 
and  a  great  manufacturing  State,  the  connecting  link  between 
the  Mississippi  and  the  Great  Lakes.  Her  metropolis,  Chicago, 
is  the  very  type  of  Northwestern  development  for  good  and 
for  evil.  It  is  an  epitome  of  her  composite  nationality.  A 
recent  writer,  analyzing  the  school  census  of  Chicago,  points 
out  that  "  only  two  cities  in  the  German  Empire,  Berlin  and 
Hamburg,  have  a  greater  German  population  than  Chicago; 
only  two  in  Sweden,  Stockholm  and  Goteborg,  have  more 


DOMINANT  FORCES  IN  WESTERN  LIFE        233 

Swedes;  and  only  two  in  Norway,  Christiana  and  Bergen,  have 
more  Norwegians";  while  the  Irish,  Polish,  Bohemians,  and 
Dutch  elements  are  also  largely  represented.  But  in  spite  of  her 
rapidity  of  growth  and  her  complex  elements,  Chicago  stands 
as  the  representative  of  the  will-power  and  genius  for  action 
of  the  Middle  West,  and  the  Slate  of  Illinois  will  be  the  battle 
ground  for  social  and  economic  ideals  for  the  next  generation. 

Michigan  is  two  States.  The  northern  peninsula  is  cut  off 
from  the  southern  physically,  industrially,  and  in  the  history 
of  settlement.  It  would  seem  that  her  natural  destiny  was 
with  Wisconsin,  or  some  possible  new  State  embracing  the  iron 
and  copper,  forest  and  shipping  areas  of  Michigan,  Wisconsin, 
and  Minnesota  on  Lake  Superior.  The  lower  peninsula  of 
Michigan  is  the  daughter  of  New  York  and  over  twelve  per 
cent  of  Michigan's  present  population  were  born  in  that  State, 
and  her  traits  are  those  of  the  parent  State.  Over  half  her 
population  is  of  foreign  parentage,  of  which  Canada  and 
England  together  have  furnished  one-half,  while  the  Germans 
outnumber  any  other  single  foreign  element.  The  State  has 
undergone  a  steady  industrial  development,  exploiting  her 
northern  mines  and  forests,  developing  her  lumber  interests 
with  Saginaw  as  the  center,  raising  fruits  along  the  lake  shore 
counties,  and  producing  grain  in  the  middle  trough  of  coun 
ties  running  from  Saginaw  Bay  to  the  south  of  Lake  Michigan. 
Her  state  university  has  been  her  peculiar  glory,  furnishing 
the  first  model  for  the  state  university,  and  it  is  the  educational 
contribution  of  the  Northwest  to  the  nation. 

Wisconsin's  future  is  dependent  upon  the  influence  of  the 
large  proportion  of  her  population  of  foreign  parentage,  for 
nearly  three-fourths  of  her  inhabitants  are  of  that  class.  She 
thus  has  a  smaller  percentage  of  native  population  than  any 
other  of  the  States  formed  from  the  Old  Northwest.  Of  this 
foreign  element  the  Germans  constitute  by  far  the  largest  part, 


234       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

with  the  Scandinavians  second.  Her  American  population 
born  outside  of  Wisconsin  comes  chiefly  from  New  York.  In 
contrast  with  the  Ohio  River  States,  she  lacks  the  Southern 
element.  Her  greater  foreign  population  and  her  dairy  inter 
ests  contrast  with  Michigan's  Canadian  and  English  elements 
and  fruit  culture.  Her  relations  are  more  Western  than  Mich 
igan's  by  reason  of  her  connection  with  the  Mississippi  and 
the  prairie  States.  Her  foreign  element  is  slightly  less  than 
Minnesota's,  and  in  the  latter  State  the  Scandinavians  take 
the  place  held  by  the  Germans  in  Wisconsin.  The  facility 
with  which  the  Scandinavians  catch  the  spirit  of  Western 
America  and  assimilate  with  their  neighbors  is  much  greater 
than  is  the  case  with  the  Germans,  so  that  Wisconsin  seems  to 
offer  opportunity  for  non-English  influence  in  a  greater  degree 
than  her  sister  on  the  west.  While  Minnesota's  economic 
development  has  heretofore  been  closely  dependent  on  the 
wheat-producing  prairies,  the  opening  of  the  iron  fields  of  the 
Mesabi  and  Vermilion  ranges,  together  with  the  development 
of  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis,  Duluth  and  West  Superior,  and 
the  prospective  achievement  of  a  deep-water  communication 
with  the  Atlantic,  seem  to  offer  to  that  State  a  new  and 
imperial  industrial  destiny.  Between  this  stupendous  eco 
nomic  future  to  the  northwest  and  the  colossal  growth  of 
Chicago  on  the  southeast  Wisconsin  seems  likely  to  become  a 
middle  agricultural  area,  developing  particularly  into  a  dairy 
State.  She  is  powerfully  affected  by  the  conservative  tenden 
cies  of  her  German  element  in  times  of  political  agitation  and 
of  proposals  of  social  change. 

Some  of  the  social  modifications  in  this  State  are  more  or 
less  typical  of  important  processes  at  work  among  the  neigh 
boring  States  of  the  Old  Northwest.  In  the  north,  the  men 
who  built  up  the  lumber  interests  of  the  State,  who  founded 
a  mill  town  surrounded  by  the  stumps  of  the  pine  forests 


DOMINANT  FORCES  IN  WESTERN  LIFE        235 

which  they  exploited  for  the  prairie  markets,  have  acquired 
wealth  and  political  power.  The  spacious  and  well-appointed 
home  of  the  town-builder  may  now  be  seen  in  many  a  northern 
community,  in  a  group  of  less  pretentious  homes  of  operatives 
and  tradesmen,  the  social  distinctions  between  them  emphasized 
by  the  difference  in  nationality.  A  few  years  before,  this 
captain  of  industry  was  perhaps  actively  engaged  in  the  task 
of  seeking  the  best  "  forties  "  or  directing  the  operations  of 
his  log-drivers.  His  wife  and  daughters  make  extensive  visits 
to  Europe,  his  sons  go  to  some  university,  and  he  himself  is 
likely  to  acquire  political  position,  or  to  devote  his  energies  to 
saving  the  town  from  industrial  decline,  as  the  timber  is  cut 
away,  by  transforming  it  into  a  manufacturing  center  for  more 
finished  products.  Still  others  continue  their  activity  among 
the  forests  of  the  South.  This  social  history  of  the  timber 
areas  of  Wisconsin  has  left  clear  indications  in  the  development 
of  the  peculiar  political  leadership  in  the  northern  portion  of 
the  State. 

In  the  southern  and  middle  counties  of  the  State,  the  orig 
inal  settlement  of  the  native  American  pioneer  farmer,  a 
tendency  is  showing  itself  to  divide  the  farms  and  to  sell  to 
thrifty  Germans,  or  to  cultivate  the  soil  by  tenants,  while  the 
farmer  retires  to  live  in  the  neighboring  village,  and  perhaps 
to  organize  creameries  and  develop  a  dairy  business.  The 
result  is  that  a  replacement  of  nationalities  is  in  progress. 
Townships  and  even  counties  once  dominated  by  the  native 
American  farmers  of  New  York  extraction  are  now  possessed 
by  Germans  or  other  European  nationalities.  Large  portions 
of  the  retail  trades  of  the  towns  are  also  passing  into  German 
hands,  while  the  native  element  seeks  the  cities,  the  profes 
sions,  or  mercantile  enterprises  of  larger  character.  The  non- 
native  element  shows  distinct  tendencies  to  dwell  in  groups. 
One  of  the  most  striking  illustrations  of  this  fact  is  the  com- 


236       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

raunity  of  New  Glarus,  in  Wisconsin,  formed  by  a  carefully 
organized  migration  from  Glarus  in  Switzerland,  aided  by  the 
canton  itself.  For  some  years  this  community  was  a  miniature 
Swiss  canton  in  social  organization  and  customs,  but  of  late 
it  has  become  increasingly  assimilated  to  the  American  type, 
and  has  left  an  impress  by  transforming  the  county  in  which 
it  is  from  a  grain-raising  to  a  dairy  region. 

From  Milwaukee  as  a  center,  the  influence  of  the  Germans 
upon  the  social  customs  and  ideals  of  Wisconsin  has  been 
marked.  Milwaukee  has  many  of  the  aspects  of  a  German 
city,  and  has  furnished  a  stronghold  of  resistence  to  native 
American  efforts  to  enact  rigid  temperance  legislation,  laws 
regulative  of  parochial  schools,  and  similar  attempts  to  bend 
the  German  type  to  the  social  ideas  of  the  pioneer  American 
stock.  In  the  last  presidential  election,  the  German  area  of 
the  State  deserted  the  Democratic  party,  and  its  opposition  to 
free  silver  was  a  decisive  factor  in  the  overwhelming  victory 
of  the  Republicans  in  Wisconsin.  With  all  the  evidence  of 
the  persistence  of  the  influence  of  this  nationality,  it  is  never 
theless  clear  that  each  decade  marks  an  increased  assimila 
tion  and  homogeneity  in  the  State;  but  the  result  is  a  com 
promise,  and  not  a  conquest  by  either  element. 

The  States  of  the  Old  Northwest  gave  to  McKinley  a  plurality 
of  over  367,000  out  of  a  total  vote  of  about  3,734,000.  New 
England  and  the  Middle  States  together  gave  him  a  plurality 
of  979,000  in  about  the  same  vote,  while  the  farther  West 
gave  to  Bryan  a  decisive  net  plurality.  It  thus  appears  that 
the  Old  Northwest  occupied  the  position  of  a  political  middle 
region  between  East  and  West.  The  significance  of  this  posi 
tion  is  manifest  when  it  is  recalled  that  this  section  is  the  child 
of  the  East  and  the  mother  of  the  Populistic  West. 

The  occupation  of  the  Western  prairies  was  determined  by 
forces  similar  to  those  which  settled  the  Old  Northwest.  In 


DOMINANT  FORCES  IN  WESTERN  LIFE        237 

the  decade  before  the  war,  Minnesota  succeeded  to  the  place 
held  by  Wisconsin  as  the  Mecca  of  settlers  in  the  prior  decade. 
To  Wisconsin  and  New  York  she  owes  the  largest  proportion 
of  her  native  settlers  born  outside  of  the  State.  Kansas  and 
Nebraska  were  settled  most  rapidly  in  the  decade  following 
the  war,  and  had  a  large  proportion  of  soldiers  in  their  Amer 
ican  immigrants.  Illinois  and  Ohio  together  furnished  about 
one-third  of  the  native  settlers  of  these  States,  but  the  element 
coming  from  Southern  States  was  stronger  in  Kansas  than  in 
Nebraska.  Both  these  States  have  an  exceptionally  large  pro 
portion  of  native  whites  as  compared  with  their  neighbors 
among  the  prairie  States.  Kansas,  for  example,  has  about 
twenty-six  per  cent  of  persons  of  foreign  parentage,  while 
Nebraska  has  about  forty-two,  Iowa  forty-three,  South  Dakota 
sixty,  Wisconsin  seventy-three,  Minnesota  seventy-five,  and 
North  Dakota  seventy-nine.  North  Dakota's  development  was 
greatest  in  the  decade  prior  to  1890.  Her  native  stock  came 
in  largest  numbers  from  Wisconsin,  with  New  York,  Minne 
sota,  and  Iowa  next  in  order.  The  growth  of  South  Dakota 
occupied  the  two  decades  prior  to  the  census  of  1890,  and  she 
has  recruited  her  native  element  from  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Illi 
nois,  and  New  York. 

In  consequence  of  the  large  migration  from  the  States  of 
the  Old  Northwest  to  the  virgin  soils  of  these  prairie  States 
many  counties  in  the  parent  States  show  a  considerable  decline 
in  growth  in  the  decade  before  1890.  There  is  significance 
in  the  fact  that,  with  the  exception  of  Iowa,  these  prairie  States, 
the  colonies  of  the  Old  Northwest,  gave  Bryan  votes  in  the 
election  of  1896  in  the  ratio  of  their  proportion  of  persons 
of  native  parentage.  North  Dakota,  with  the  heaviest  foreign 
element,  was  carried  for  McKinley,  while  South  Dakota,  with 
a  much  smaller  foreign  vote,  went  for  Bryan.  Kansas  and 
Nebraska  rank  with  Ohio  in  their  native  percentage,  and  they 


238       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

were  the  center  of  prairie  Populism.  Of  course,  there  were 
other  important  local  economic  and  political  explanations  for 
this  ratio,  but  it  seems  to  have  a  basis  of  real  meaning.  Cer 
tain  it  is  that  the  leaders  of  the  silver  movement  came  from 
the  native  element  furnished  by  the  Old  Northwest.  The 
original  Populists  in  the  Kansas  legislature  of  1891  were  born 
in  different  States  as  follows:  in  Ohio,  twelve;  Indiana,  six; 
Illinois,  five;  New  York,  four;  Pennsylvania,  two;  Connecticut, 
Vermont,  and  Maine,  one  each, —  making  a  total,  for  the 
Northern  current,  of  thirty-two.  Of  the  remaining  eighteen, 
thirteen  were  from  the  South,  and  one  each  from  Kansas, 
Missouri,  California,  England  and  Ireland.  Nearly  all  were 
Methodists  and  former  Republicans.1 

Looking  at  the  silver  movement  more  largely,  we  find  that 
of  the  Kansas  delegation  in  the  Fifty-fourth  Congress,  one 
was  born  in  Kansas,  and  the  rest  in  Indiana,  Illinois,  Ohio, 
Pennsylvania,  West  Virginia,  and  Maine.  All  of  the  Nebraska 
delegation  in  the  House  came  from  the  Old  Northwest  or  from 
Iowa.  The  biographies  of  the  two  Representatives  from  the 
State  of  Washington  tell  an  interesting  story.  These  men 
came  as  children  to  the  pine  woods  of  Wisconsin,  took  up 
public  lands,  and  worked  on  the  farm  and  in  the  pineries. 
One  passed  on  to  a  homestead  in  Nebraska  before  settling  in 
Washington.  Thus  they  kept  one  stage  ahead  of  the  social 
transformations  of  the  West.  This  is  the  usual  training  of 
the  Western  politicians.  If  the  reader  would  see  a  picture 
of  the  representative  Kansas  Populist,  let  him  examine  the 
family  portraits  of  the  Ohio  farmer  in  the  middle  of  this 
century. 

In  a  word,  the  Populist  is  the  American  farmer  who  has 
kept  in  advance  of  the  economic  and  social  transformations 

1  For  this  information  I  am  indebted  to  Professor  F.  W.  Blackmar,  of 
the  University  of  Kansas. 


DOMINANT  FORCES  IN  WESTERN  LIFE        239 

that  have  overtaken  those  who  remained  behind.  While,  doubt 
less,  investigation  into  the  ancestry  of  the  Populists  and  "  silver 
men  "  who  came  to  the  prairies  from  the  Old  Northwest  would 
show  a  large  proportion  of  Southern  origin,  yet  the  center  of 
discontent  seems  to  have  been  among  the  men  of  the  New 
England  and  New  York  current.  If  New  England  looks  with 
care  at  these  men,  she  may  recognize  in  them  the  familiar  linea 
ments  of  the  embattled  farmers  who  fired  the  shot  heard  round 
the  world.  The  continuous  advance  of  this  pioneer  stock  from 
New  England  has  preserved  for  us  the  older  type  of  the  pioneer 
of  frontier  New  England. 

I  do  not  overlook  the  transforming  influences  of  the  wil 
derness  on  this  stock  ever  since  it  left  the  earlier  frontier 
to  follow  up  the  valleys  of  western  Connecticut,  Massachu 
setts,  and  Vermont,  into  western  New  York,  into  Ohio,  into 
Iowa,  and  out  to  the  arid  plains  of  western  Kansas  and 
Nebraska;  nor  do  I  overlook  the  peculiar  industrial  conditions 
of  the  prairie  States.  But  I  desire  to  insist  upon  the  other 
truth,  also,  that  these  westward  immigrants,  keeping  for  gen 
erations  in  advance  of  the  transforming  industrial  and  social 
forces  that  have  wrought  so  vast  a  revolution  in  the  older 
regions  of  the  East  which  they  left,  could  not  but  preserve 
important  aspects  of  the  older  farmer  type.  In  the  arid  West 
these  pioneers  have  halted  and  have  turned  to  perceive  an 
altered  nation  and  changed  social  ideals.  They  see  the  sharp 
contrast  between  their  traditional  idea  of  America,  as  the  land 
of  opportunity,  the  land  of  the  self-made  man,  free  from  class 
distinctions  and  from  the  power  of  wealth,  and  the  existing 
America,  so  unlike  the  earlier  ideal.  If  we  follow  back  the 
line  of  march  of  the  Puritan  farmer,  we  shall  see  how  respon 
sive  he  has  always  been  to  isms,  and  how  persistently  he  has 
resisted  encroachments  on  his  ideals  of  individual  opportunity 
and  democracy.  He  is  the  prophet  of  the  "  higher  law  "  in 


240       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Kansas  before  the  Civil  War.  He  is  the  Prohibitionist  of 
Iowa  and  Wisconsin,  crying  out  against  German  customs  as 
an  invasion  of  his  traditional  ideals.  He  is  the  Granger  of 
Wisconsin,  passing  restrictive  railroad  legislation.  He  is  the 
Abolitionist,  the  Anti-mason,  the  Millerite,  the  Woman  Suf 
fragist,  the  Spiritualist,  the  Mormon,  of  Western  New 
York.  Follow  him  to  his  New  England  home  in  the  turbu 
lent  days  of  Shays'  rebellion,  paper  money,  stay  and  tender 
laws,  and  land  banks.  The  radicals  among  these  New  Eng 
land  farmers  hated  lawyers  and  capitalists.  "  I  would  not 
trust  them,"  said  Abraham  White,  in  the  ratification  conven 
tion  of  Massachusetts,  in  1788,  "though  every  one  of  them 
should  be  a  Moses."  "  These  lawyers,"  cried  Amos  Single- 
tary,  "  and  men  of  learning  and  moneyed  men  that  talk  so 
finely  and  gloss  over  matters  so  smoothly  to  make  us  poor 
illiterate  people  swallow  the  pill,  expect  to  get  into  Congress 
themselves !  They  mean  to  get  all  the  money  into  their  hands, 
and  then  they  will  swallow  up  all  us  little  folk,  like  the 
Leviathan,  Mr.  President;  yea,  just  as  the  whale  swallowed  up 
Jonah." 

If  the  voice  of  Mary  Ellen  Lease  sounds  raucous  to  the  New 
England  man  to-day,  while  it  is  sweet  music  in  the  ears  of  the 
Kansas  farmer,  let  him  ponder  the  utterances  of  these  frontier 
farmers  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution;  and  if  he  is  still 
doubtful  of  this  spiritual  kinship,  let  him  read  the  words  of 
the  levelers  and  sectaries  of  Cromwell's  army. 

The  story  of  the  political  leaders  who  remained  in  the  place 
of  their  birth  and  shared  its  economic  changes  differs  from 
the  story  of  those  who  by  moving  to  the  West  continued  on  a 
new  area  the  old  social  type.  In  the  throng  of  Scotch-Irish 
pioneers  that  entered  the  uplands  of  the  Carolinas  in  the  second 
quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  the  ancestors  of  Cal- 
houn  and  of  Andrew  Jackson.  Remaining  in  this  region, 


DOMINANT  FORCES  IN  WESTERN  LIFE        241 

Calhoun  shared  the  transformations  of  the  South  Carolina 
interior.  He  saw  it  change  from  the  area  of  the  pioneer 
farmers  to  an  area  of  great  planters  raising  cotton  by  slave 
labor.  This  explains  the  transformation  of  the  nationalist 
and  protectionist  Calhoun  of  1816  into  the  state-sovereignty 
and  free-trade  Calhoun.  Jackson,  on  the  other  hand,  left  the 
region  while  it  was  still  a  frontier,  shared  the  frontier  life  of 
Tennessee,  and  reflected  the  democracy  and  nationalism  of  his 
people.  Henry  Clay  lived  long  enough  in  the  kindred  State 
of  Kentucky  to  see  it  pass  from  a  frontier  to  a  settled  commu 
nity,  and  his  views  on  slavery  reflected  the  transitional  history 
of  that  State.  Lincoln,  on  the  other  hand,  born  in  Kentucky 
in  1809,  while  the  State  was  still  under  frontier  conditions, 
migrated  in  1816  to  Indiana,  and  in  1830  to  Illinois.  The 
pioneer  influences  of  his  community  did  much  to  shape  his 
life,  and  the  development  of  the  raw  frontiersman  into  the 
statesman  was  not  unlike  the  development  of  his  own  State. 
Political  leaders  who  experienced  the  later  growth  of  the 
Northwest,  like  Garfield,  Hayes,  Harrison,  and  McKinley, 
show  clearly  the  continued  transformations  of  the  section.  But 
in  the  days  when  the  Northwest  was  still  in  the  gristle,  she 
sent  her  sons  into  the  newer  West  to  continue  the  views  of 
life  and  the  policies  of  the  half-frontier  region  they  had  left. 

To-day,  the  Northwest,  standing  between  her  ancestral  con 
nections  in  the  East  and  her  children  in  the  West,  partly 
like  the  East,  partly  like  the  West,  finds  herself  in  a  position 
strangely  like  that  in  the  days  of  the  slavery  struggle,  when 
her  origins  presented  to  her  a  "  divided  duty."  But  these 
issues  are  not  with  the  same  imperious  "Which?  "  as  was  the 
issue  of  freedom  or  slavery. 

Looking  at  the  Northwest  as  a  whole,  one  sees,  in  the  char 
acter  of  its  industries  and  in  the  elements  of  its  population, 
it  is  identified  on  the  east  with  the  zone  of  States  including 


242       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

the  middle  region  and  New  England.  Cotton  culture  and  the 
negro  make  a  clear  line  of  division  between  the  Old  Northwest 
and  the  South.  And  yet  in  important  historical  ideals  —  in  the 
process  of  expansion,  in  the  persistence  of  agricultural  inter 
ests,  in  impulsiveness,  in  imperialistic  ways  of  looking  at  the 
American  destiny,  in  hero-worship,  in  the  newness  of  its  pres 
ent  social  structure  —  the  Old  Northwest  has  much  in  com 
mon  with  the  South  and  the  Far  West. 

Behind  her  is  the  old  pioneer  past  of  simple  democratic 
conditions,  and  freedom  of  opportunity  for  all  men.  Before 
her  is  a  superb  industrial  development,  the  brilliancy  of  suc 
cess  as  evinced  in  a  vast  population,  aggregate  wealth,  and 
sectional  power. 


IX 

CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  THE  WEST  TO  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  J 

Political  thought  in  the  period  of  the  French  Revolution 
tended  to  treat  democracy  as  an  absolute  system  applicable 
to  all  times  and  to  all  peoples,  a  system  that  was  to  be  cre 
ated  by  the  act  of  the  people  themselves  on  philosophical 
principles.  Ever  since  that  era  there  has  been  an  inclination 
on  the  part  of  writers  on  democracy  to  emphasize  the  ana 
lytical  and  theoretical  treatment  to  the  neglect  of  the  under 
lying  factors  of  historical  development. 

If,  however,  we  consider  the  underlying  conditions  and 
forces  that  create  the  democratic  type  of  government,  and  at 
times  contradict  the  external  forms  to  which  the  name  democ 
racy  is  applied,  we  shall  find  that  under  this  name  there  have 
appeared  a  multitude  of  political  types  radically  unlike  in 
fact. 

The  careful  student  of  history  must,  therefore,  seek  the 
explanation  of  the  forms  and  changes  of  political  institu 
tions  in  the  social  and  economic  forces  that  determine  them. 
To  know  that  at  any  one  time  a  nation  may  be  called  a  democ 
racy,  an  aristocracy,  or  a  monarchy,  is  not  so  important  as  to 
know  what  are  the  social  and  economic  tendencies  of  the  state. 
These  are  the  vital  forces  that  work  beneath  the  surface  and 
dominate  the  external  form.  It  is  to  changes  in  the  economic 
and  social  life  of  a  people  that  we  must  look  for  the  forces 
that  ultimately  create  and  modify  organs  of  political  action. 

1  Atlantic  Monthly,  January,  1903.    Reprinted  by  permission. 

243 


244       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

For  the  time,  adaptation  of  political  structure  may  be  incom 
plete  or  concealed.  Old  organs  will  be  utilized  to  express 
new  forces,  and  so  gradual  and  subtle  will  be  the  change  that 
it  may  hardly  be  recognized.  The  pseudo-democracies  under 
the  Medici  at  Florence  and  under  Augustus  at  Rome  are  famil 
iar  examples  of  this  type.  Or  again,  if  the  political  structure 
be  rigid,  incapable  of  responding  to  the  changes  demanded  by 
growth,  the  expansive  forces  of  social  and  economic  transfor 
mation  may  rend  it  in  some  catastrophe  like  that  of  the  French 
Revolution.  In  all  these  changes  both  conscious  ideals  and 
unconscious  social  reorganization  are  at  work. 

These  facts  are  familiar  to  the  student,  and  yet  it  is  doubt 
ful  if  they  have  been  fully  considered  in  connection  with 
American  democracy.  For  a  century  at  least,  in  conventional 
expression,  Americans  have  referred  to  a  "  glorious  Constitu 
tion  "  in  explaining  the  stability  and  prosperity  of  their 
democracy.  We  have  believed  as  a  nation  that  other  peoples 
had  only  to  will  our  democratic  institutions  in  order  to  repeat 
our  own  career. 

In  dealing  with  Western  contributions  to  democracy,  it  is 
essential  that  the  considerations  which  have  just  been  men 
tioned  shall  be  kept  in  mind.  Whatever  these  contributions 
may  have  been,  we  find  ourselves  at  the  present  time  in  an 
era  of  such  profound  economic  and  social  transformation  as  to 
raise  the  question  of  the  effect  of  these  changes  upon  the 
democratic  institutions  of  the  United  States.  Within  a  decade 
four  marked  changes  have  occurred  in  our  national  develop 
ment;  taken  together  they  constitute  a  revolution. 

First,  there  is  the  exhaustion  of  the  supply  of  free  land  and 
the  closing  of  the  movement  of  Western  advance  as  an  effec 
tive  factor  in  American  development.  The  first  rough  con 
quest  of  the  wilderness  is  accomplished,  and  that  great  supply 
of  free  lands  which  year  after  year  has  served  to  reinforce 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY      245 

the  democratic  influences  in  the  United  States  is  exhausted.  It 
is  true  that  vast  tracts  of  government  land  are  still  untaken, 
but  they  constitute  the  mountain  and  arid  regions,  only  a  small 
fraction  of  them  capable  of  conquest,  and  then  only  by  the  ap 
plication  of  capital  and  combined  effort.  The  free  lands  that 
made  the  American  pioneer  have  fione. 

In  the  second  place,  contemporaneously  with  this  there 
has  been  such  a  concentration  of  capital  in  the  control  of 
fundamental  industries  as  to  make  a  new  epoch  in  the  eco 
nomic  development  of  the  United  States.  The  iron,  the  coal, 
and  the  cattle  of  the  country  have  all  fallen  under  the  domina 
tion  of  a  few  great  corporations  with  allied  interests,  and 
by  the  rapid  combination  of  the  important  railroad  systems 
and  steamship  lines,  in  concert  with  these  same  forces,  even 
the  breadstuffs  and  the  manufactures  of  the  nation  are  to  some 
degree  controlled  in  a  similar  way.  This  is  largely  the  work 
of  the  last  decade.  The  development  of  the  greatest  iron 
mines  of  Lake  Superior  occurred  in  the  early  nineties,  and 
in  the  same  decade  came  the  combination  by  which  the  coal 
and  the  coke  of  the  country,  and  the  transportation  systems 
that  connect  them  with  the  iron  mines,  have  been  brought 
under  a  few  concentrated  managements.  Side  by  side  with 
this  concentration  of  capital  has  gone  the  combination  of 
labor  in  the  same  vast  industries.  The  one  is  in  a  certain 
sense  the  concomitant  of  the  other,  but  the  movement  acquires 
an  additional  significance  because  of  the  fact  that  during  the 
past  fifteen  years  the  labor  class  has  been  so  recruited  by  a 
tide  of  foreign  immigration  that  this  class  is  now  largely  made 
up  of  persons  of  foreign  parentage,  and  the  lines  of  cleavage 
which  begin  to  appear  in  this  country  between  capital  and  labor 
have  been  accentuated  by  distinctions  of  nationality. 

A  thi rd  phenomenon. con nected  with  the  two  just  mentioned 
is  the  expansion  of  the  United  States  politically  and  commer- 


246       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


\i\tn  Tan/is  hftynnrl  fra  sfias.  A  cycle  of  American 
development  has  been  completed.  Up  to  the  close  of  the 
War  of  1812,  this  country  was  involved  in  the  fortunes  of  the 
European  state  system.  The  first  quarter  of  a  century  of  our 
national  existence  was  almost  a  continual  struggle  to  prevent 
ourselves  being  drawn  into  the  European  wars.  At  the  close 
of  that  era  of  conflict,  the  United  States  set  its  face  toward 
the  West.  It  began  the  settlement  and  improvement  of  the 
vast  interior  of  the  country.  Here  was  the  field  of  our  coloni 
zation,  here  the  field  of  our  political  activity.  This  process 
being  completed,  it  is  not  strange  that  we  find  the  United 
States  again  involved  in  world-politics.  The  revolution  that 
occurred  four  years  ago,  when  the  United  States  struck  down 
that  ancient  nation  under  whose  auspices  the  New  World  was 
discovered,  is  hardly  yet  more  than  dimly  understood.  The 
insular  wreckage  of  the  Spanish  War,  Porto  Rico  and  the 
Philippines,  with  the  problems  presented  by  the  Hawaiian 
Islands,  Cuba,  the  Isthmian  Canal,  and  China,  all  are  indica 
tions  of  the  new  direction  of  the  ship  of  state,  and  while  we 
thus  turn  our  attention  overseas,  our  concentrated  industrial 
strength  has  given  us  a  striking  power  against  the  commerce 
of  Europe  that  is  already  producing  consternation  in  the  Old 
World.  Having  completed  the  conquest  of  the  wilderness, 
and  having  consolidated  our  interests,  we  are  beginning  to 
consider  the  relations  of  democracy  and  empire. 

And  fourth,  the  political  parties  of  the  United  States  now 
tend  to  divide  on  issues  that  involve  the  question  of  Social 
ism.  The  rise  of  the  Populist  party  in  the  last  decade,  and 
the  acceptance  of  so  many  of  its  principles  by  the  Democratic 
party  under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Bryan,  show  in  striking 
manner  the  birth  of  new  political  ideas,  the  reformation  of  the 
lines  of  political  conflict. 

It  is  doubtful  if  in  any  ten  years  of  American  history  more 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY     247 

significant  factors  in  our  growth  have  revealed  themselves. 

The  struggle  of  the  pioneer  farmers  to  subdue  the  arid  lands 
of  the  Great  Plains  in  the  eighties  was  followed  by  the  official 
announcement  of  the  extinction  of  the  frontier  line  in  1890. 
The  dramatic  outcome  of  the  Chicago  Convention  of  1896 
marked  the  rise  into  power  of  the  representatives  of  Populistic 
change.  Two  years  later  came  the  battle  of  Manila,  which 
broke  down  the  old  isolation  of  the  nation,  and  started  it  on 
a  path  the  goal  of  which  no  man  can  foretell;  and  finally, 
but  two  years  ago  came  that  concentration  of  which  the  billion 
and  a  half  dollar  steel  trust  and  the  union  of  the  Northern 
continental  railways  ^are  stupendous  examples.  Is  it  not 
obvious,  then,  that  the  student  who  seeks  for  the  explanation 
of  democracy  in  the  social  and  economic  forces  that  underlie 
political  forms  must  make  inquiry  into  the  conditions  that 
have  produced  our  democratic  institutions,  if  he  would  esti 
mate  the  effect  of  these  vast  changes?  As  a  contribution  to 
this  inquiry,  let  us  now  turn  to  an  examination  of  the  part 
that  the  West  has  played  in  shaping  our  democracy. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  settlement  of  America,  the  fron 
tier  regions  have  exercised  a  steady  influence  toward  democ 
racy.  In  Virginia,  to  take  an  example,  it  can  be  traced  as 
early  as  the  period  of  Bacon's  Rebellion,  a  hundred  years 
before  our  Declaration  of  Independence.  The  small  land 
holders,  seeing  that  their  powers  were  steadily  passing  into 
the  hands  of  the  wealthy  planters  who  controlled  Church  and 
State  and  lands,  rose  in  revolt.  A  generation  later,  in  the 
governorship  of  Alexander  Spotswood,  we  find  a  contest 
between  the  frontier  settlers  and  the  property-holding  classes 
of  the  coast.  The  democracy  with  which  Spotswood  had  to 
struggle,  and  of  which  he  so  bitterly  complained,  was  a  democ 
racy  made  up  of  small  landholders,  of  the  newer  immigrants, 
and  of  indented  servants,  who  at  the  expiration  of  their  time 


248       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  servitude  passed  into  the  interior  to  take  up  lands  and 
engage  in  pioneer  farming.  The  "War  of  the  Regulation," 
just  on  the  eve  of  the  American  Revolution,  shows  the  steady 
persistence  of  this  struggle  between  the  classes  of  the  interior 
and  those  of  the  coast.  The  Declaration  of  Grievances  which 
the  back  counties  of  the  Carolines  then  drew  up  against  the 
aristocracy  that  dominated  the  politics  of  those  colonies 
exhibits  the  contest  between  the  democracy  of  the  frontier  and 
the  established  classes  who  apportioned  the  legislature  in 
such  fashion  as  to  secure  effective  control  of  government. 
Indeed,  in  a  period  before  the  outbreak  of  the  American  Revo 
lution,  one  can  trace  a  distinct  belt  of  democratic  territory 
extending  from  the  back  country  of  New  England  down  through 
western  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  the  South.2 

In  each  colony  this  region  was  in  conflict  with  the  dominant 
classes  of  the  coast.  It  constituted  a  quasi-revolutionary  area 
before  the  days  of  the  Revolution,  and  it  formed  the  basis  on 
which  the  Democratic  party  was  afterwards  established.  It 
was,  therefore,  in  the  West,  as  it  was  in  the  period  before  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  that  the  struggle  for  democratic 
development  first  revealed  itself,  and  in  that  area  the  essential 
ideas  of  American  democracy  had  already  appeared.  Through 
the  period  of  the  Revolution  and  of  the  Confederation  a  similar 
contest  can  be  noted.  On  the  frontier  of  New  England,  along 
the  western  border  of  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  and  the  Caro- 
linas,  and  in  the  communities  beyond  the  Alleghany  Moun 
tains,  there  arose  a  demand  of  the  frontier  settlers  for  inde 
pendent  statehood  based  on  democratic  provisions.  There  is 
a  strain  of  fierceness  in  their  energetic  petitions  demanding 
self-government  under  the  theory  that  every  people  have  the 
right  to  establish  their  own  political  institutions  in  an  area 
which  they  have  won  from  the  wilderness.  Those  revolu- 

2  See  chapter  iii. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY     249 

tionary  principles  based  on  natural  rights,  for  which  the  sea 
board  colonies  were  contending,  were  taken  up  with  frontier 
energy  in  an  attempt  to  apply  them  to  the  lands  of  the  West. 
No  one  can  read  their  petitions  denouncing  the  control  exer 
cised  by  the  wealthy  landholders  of  the  coast,  appealing 
to  the  record  of  their  conquest  of  the  wilderness,  and  demand 
ing  the  possession  of  the  lands  for  which  they  have  fought 
the  Indians,  and  which  they  had  reduced  by  their  ax  to 
civilization,  without  recognizing  in  these  frontier  communi 
ties  the  cradle  of  a  belligerent  Western  democracy.  "  A  fool 
can  sometimes  put  on  his  coat  better  than  a  wise  man  can  do 
it  for  him," —  such  is  the  philosophy  of  its  petitioners.  In 
this  period  also  came  the  contests  of  the  interior  agricultural 
portion  of  New  England  against  the  coast-wise  merchants  and 
property-holders,  of  which  Shays'  Rebellion  is  the  best  known, 
although  by  no  means  an  isolated  instance. 

By  the  time  of  the  constitutional  convention,  this  struggle  for 
democracy  had  effected,  a  fairly  well-defined  division  into  par 
ties.  Although  these  parties  did  not  at  first  recognize  their  in 
terstate  connections,  there  were  similar  issues  on  which  they 
split  in  almost  all  the  States.  The  demands  for  an  issue  of 
paper  money,  the  stay  of  execution  against  debtors,  and  the  re 
lief  against  excessive  taxation  were  found  in  every  colony  in 
the  interior  agricultural  regions.  The  rise  of  this  significant 
movement  wakened  the  apprehensions  of  the  men  of  means,  and 
in  the  debates  over  the  basis  of  suffrage  for  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  in  the  constitutional  convention  of  1787  leaders  of 
the  conservative  party  did  not  hesitate  to  demand  that  safe 
guards  to  the  property  should  be  furnished  the  coast  against  the 
interior.  The  outcome  of  the  debate  left  the  question  of  suf 
frage  for  the  House  of  Representatives  dependent  upon  the  pol 
icy  of  the  separate  States.  This  was  in  effect  imposing  a  prop 
erty  qualification  throughout  the  nation  as  a  whole,  and  it 


250       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

was  only  as  the  interior  of  the  country  developed  that  these 
restrictions  gradually  gave  way  in  the  direction  of  manhood 
suffrage. 

All  of  these  scattered  democratic  tendencies  Jefferson  com 
bined,  in  the  period  of  Washington's  presidency,  into  the 
Democratic-Republican  party.  Jefferson  was  the  first  prophet 
of  American  democracy,  and  when  we  analyse  the  essential 
features  of  his  gospel,  it  is  clear  that  the  Western  influence 
was  the  dominant  element.  Jefferson  himself  was  born  in  the 
frontier  region  of  Virginia,  on  the  edge  of  the  Blue  Ridge, 
in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  His  father  was  a 
pioneer.  Jefferson's  "  Notes  on  Virginia  "  reveal  clearly  his 
conception  that  democracy  should  have  an  agricultural  basis, 
and  that  manufacturing  development  and  city  life  were  dan 
gerous  to  the  purity  of  the  body  politic.  Simplicity  and 
economy  in  government,  the  right  of  revolution,  the  freedom 
of  the  individual,  the  belief  that  those  who  win  the  vacant 
lands  are  entitled  to  shape  their  own  government  in  their  own 
way, —  these  are  all  parts  of  the  platform  of  political  principles 
to  which  he  gave  his  adhesion,  and  they  are  all  elements  emi 
nently  characteristic  of  the  Western  democracy  into  which  he 
was  born. 

In  the  period  of  the  Revolution  he  had  brought  in  a  series 
of  measures  which  tended  to  throw  the  power  of  Virginia 
into  the  hands  of  the  settlers  in  the  interior  rather  than  of 
the  coastwise  aristocracy.  The  repeal  of  the  laws  of  entail 
and  primogeniture  would  have  destroyed  the  great  estates  on 
which  the  planting  aristocracy  based  its  power.  The  aboli 
tion  of  the  Established  Church  would  still  further  have  dimin 
ished  the  influence  of  the  coastwise  party  in  favor  of  the  dis 
senting  sects  of  the  interior.  His  scheme  of  general  public 
education  reflected  the  same  tendency,  and  his  demand  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery  was  characteristic  of  a  representative 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY     251 

of  the  West  rather  than  of  the  old-time  aristocracy  of  the 
coast.  His  sympathy  with  the  Western  expansion  culminated 
in  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  In  short,  the  tendencies  of  Jef 
ferson's  legislation  were  to  replace  the  dominance  of  the 
planting  aristocracy  by  the  dominance  of  the  interior  class, 
which  had  sought  in  vain  to  achieve  its  liberties  in  the  period 
of  Bacon's  Rebellion. 

Nevertheless,  Thomas  Jefferson  was  the  John  the  Baptist 
of  democracy,  not  its  Moses.  Only  with  the  slow  setting  of 
the  tide  of  settlement  farther  and  farther  toward  the  interior 
did  the  democratic  influence  grow  strong  enough  to  take  actual 
possession  of  the  government.  The  period  from  1800  to  1820 
saw  a  steady  increase  in  these  tendencies.  The  established 
classes  in  New  England  and  the  South  began  to  take  alarm. 
Perhaps  no  better  illustration  of  the  apprehensions  of  the 
old-time  Federal  conservative  can  be  given  than  these  utter 
ances  of  President  Dwight,  of  Yale  College,  in  the  book  of 
travels  which  he  published  in  that  period:  — 

The  class  of  pioneers  cannot  live  in  regular 
society.  They  are  too  idle,  too  talkative,  too  pas 
sionate,  too  prodigal,  and  too  shiftless  to  acquire 
either  property  or  character.  They  are  impatient 
of  the  restraints  of  law,  religion,  and  morality, 
and  grumble  about  the  taxes  by  which  the  Rulers, 
Ministers,  and  Schoolmasters  are  supported.  .  .  . 
After  exposing  the  injustice  of  the  community  in 
neglecting  to  invest  persons  of  such  superior  merit 
in  public  offices,  in  many  an  eloquent  harangue 
uttered  by  many  a  kitchen  fire,  in  every  black 
smith  shop,  in  every  corner  of  the  streets,  and 
finding  all  their  efforts  vain,  they  become  at  length 
discouraged,  and  under  the  pressure  of  poverty, 


252       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

the  fear  of  the  gaol,  and  consciousness  of  public 
contempt,  leave  their  native  places  and  betake 
themselves  to  the  wilderness. 

Such  was  a  conservative's  impression  of  that  pioneer  move 
ment  of  New  England  colonists  who  had  spread  up  the  valley 
of  the  Connecticut  into  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  west 
ern  New  York  in  the  period  of  which  he  wrote,  and  who 
afterwards  went  on  to  possess  the  Northwest.  New  England 
Federalism  looked  with  a  shudder  at  the  democratic  ideas 
of  those  who  refused  to  recognize  the  established  order.  But 
in  that  period  there  came  into  the  Union  a  sisterhood  of  fron 
tier  States  —  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Missouri  —  with  pro 
visions  for  the  franchise  that  brought  in  complete  democracy. 

Even  the  newly  created  States  of  the  Southwest  showed 
the  tendency.  The  wind  of  democracy  blew  so  strongly 
from  the  West,  that  even  in  the  older  States  of  New  York, 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Virginia,  conventions  were 
called,  which  liberalized  their  constitutions  by  strengthening 
the  democratic  basis  of  the  State.  In  the  same  time  the  labor 
population  of  the  cities  began  to  assert  its  power  and  its 
determination  to  share  in  government.  Of  this  frontier  democ 
racy  which  now  took  possession  of  the  nation,  Andrew  Jack 
son  was  the  very  personification.  He  was  born  in  the  back 
woods  of  the  Carolinas  in  the  midst  of  the  turbulent  democ 
racy  that  preceded  the  Revolution,  and  he  grew  up  in  the 
frontier  State  of  Tennessee.  In  the  midst  of  this  region  of 
personal  feuds  and  frontier  ideals  of  law,  he  quickly  rose  to 
leadership.  The  appearance  of  this  frontiersman  on  the  floor 
of  Congress  was  an  omen  full  of  significance.  He  reached 
Philadelphia  at  the  close  of  Washington's  administration, 
having  ridden  on  horseback  nearly  eight  hundred  miles  to 
his  destination.  Gallatin,  himself  a  Western  man,  describes 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY      253 

Jackson  as  he  entered  the  halls  of  Congress:  "A  tall,  lank, 
uncouth-looking  personage,  with  long  locks  of  hair  hanging 
over  his  face  and  a  cue  down  his  back  tied  in  an  eel-skin; 
his  dress  singular;  his  manners  those  of  a  rough  backwoods 
man."  And  Jefferson  testified :  "  When  I  was  President  of 
the  Senate  he  was  a  Senator,  and  he  could  never  speak  on 
account  of  the  rashness  of  his  feelings.  I  have  seen  him 
attempt  it  repeatedly  and  as  often  choke  with  rage."  At  last 
the  frontier  in  the  person  of  its  typical  man  had  found  a 
place  in  the  Government.  This  six-foot  backwoodsman,  with 
blue  eyes  that  could  blaze  on  occasion,  this  choleric,  impet 
uous,  self-willed  Scotch-Irish  leader  of  men,  this  expert  duel 
ist,  and  ready  fighter,  this  embodiment  of  the  tenacious,  vehe 
ment,  personal  West,  was  in  politics  to  stay.  The  frontier 
democracy  of  that  time  had  the  instincts  of  the  clansman  in 
the  days  of  Scotch  border  warfare.  Vehement  and  tenacious 
as  the  democracy  was,  strenuously  as  each  man  contended  with 
his  neighbor  for  the  spoils  of  the  new  country  that  opened 
before  them,  they  all  had  respect  for  the  man  who  best 
expressed  their  aspirations  and  their  ideas.  Every  commu 
nity  had  its  hero.  In  the  War  of  1812  and  the  subsequent 
Indian  fighting  Jackson  made  good  his  claim,  not  only  to  the 
loyalty  of  the  people  of  Tennessee,  but  of  the  whole  West, 
and  even  of  the  nation.  He  had  the  essential  traits  of  the 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee  frontier.  It  was  a  frontier  free  from 
the  influence  of  European  ideas  and  institutions.  The  men 
of  the  "  Western  World  "  turned  their  backs  upon  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  and  with  a  grim  energy  and  self-reliance  began  to 
build  up  a  society  free  from  the  dominance  of  ancient  forms. 
The  Westerner  defended  himself  and  resented  governmental 
restrictions.  The  duel  and  the  blood-feud  found  congenial 
soil  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  The  idea  of  the  personality 
of  law  was  often  dominant  over  the  organized  machinery  of 


254       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

justice.  That  method  was  best  which  was  most  direct  and 
effective.  The  backwoodsman  was  intolerant  of  men  who  split 
hairs,  or  scrupled  over  the  method  of  reaching  the  right.  In 
a  word,  the  unchecked  development  of  the  individual  was 
the  significant  product  of  this  frontier  democracy.  It  sought 
rather  to  express  itself  by  choosing  a  man  of  the  people, 
than  by  the  formation  of  elaborate  governmental  institu 
tions. 

It  was  because  Andrew  Jackson  personified  these  essential 
Western  traits  that  in  his  presidency  he  became  the  idol  and 
the  mouthpiece  of  the  popular  will.  In  his  assault  upon  the 
Bank  as  an  engine  of  aristocracy,  and  in  his  denunciation  of 
nullification,  he  went  directly  to  his  object  with  the  ruthless 
energy  of  a  frontiersman.  For  formal  law  and  the  subleties 
of  State  sovereignty  he  had  the  contempt  of  a  backwoodsman. 
Nor  is  it  without  significance  that  this  typical  man  of  the  new 
democracy  will  always  be  associated  with  the  triumph  of  the 
spoils  system  in  national  politics.  To  the  new  democracy 
of  the  West,  office  was  an  opportunity  to  exercise  natural 
rights  as  an  equal  citizen  of  the  community.  Rotation  in 
office  served  not  simply  to  allow  the  successful  man  to  punish 
his  enemies  and  reward  his  friends,  but  it  also  furnished  the 
training  in  the  actual  conduct  of  political  affairs  which  every 
American  claimed  as  his  birthright.  Only  in  a  primitive 
democracy  of  the  type  of  the  United  States  in  1830  could  such 
a  system  have  existed  without  the  ruin  of  the  State.  National 
government  in  that  period  was  no  complex  and  nicely  adjusted 
machine,  and  the  evils  of  the  system  were  long  in  making 
themselves  fully  apparent. 

The  triumph  of  Andrew  Jackson  marked  the  end  of  the  old 
era  of  trained  statesmen  for  the  Presidency.  With  him  began 
the  era  of  the  popular  hero.  Even  Martin  Van  Buren,  whom 
we  think  of  in  connection  with  the  East,  was  born  in  a  log 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY      255 

house  under  conditions  that  were  not  unlike  parts  of  the 
older  West.  Harrison  was  the  hero  of  the  Northwest,  as 
Jackson  had  been  of  the  Southwest.  Polk  was  a  typical 
Tennesseean,  eager  to  expand  the  nation,  and  Zachary  Taylor 
was  what  Webster  called  a  "  frontier  colonel."  During  the 
period  that  followed  Jackson,  power  passed  from  the  region 
of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  to  the  border  of  the  Mississippi. 
The  natural  democratic  tendencies  that  had  earlier  shown 
themselves  in  the  Gulf  States  were  destroyed,  however,  by 
the  spread  of  cotton  culture,  and  the  development  of  great 
plantations  in  that  region.  What  had  been  typical  of  the 
democracy  of  the  Revolutionary  frontier  and  of  the  frontier 
of  Andrew  Jackson  was  now  to  be  seen  in  the  States  between 
the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi.  As  Andrew  Jackson  is  the 
typical  democrat  of  the  former  region,  so  Abraham  Lincoln 
is  the  very  embodiment  of  the  pioneer  period  of  the  Old 
Northwest.  Indeed,  he  is  the  embodiment  of  the  democracy 
of  the  West.  How  can  one  speak  of  him  except  in  the  words 
of  Lowell's  great  "  Commemoration  Ode  "  :  — 

"  For  him  her  Old- World  moulds  aside  she  threw, 
And,  choosing  sweet  clay  from  the  breast 

Of  the  unexhausted  West, 
With  stuff  untainted  shaped  a  hero  new, 
Wise,  steadfast  in  the  strength  of  God,  and  true. 

His  was  no  lonely  mountain-peak  of  mind, 

Thrusting  to  thin  air  o'er  our  cloudy  bars, 

A  sea-mark  now,  now  lost  in  vapors  blind; 

Broad  prairie  rather,  genial,  level-lined, 

Fruitful  and  friendly  for  all  human  kind, 

Yet  also  nigh  to  heaven  and  loved  of  loftiest  stars. 

Nothing  of  Europe  here, 
Or,  then,  of  Europe  fronting  mornward  still, 
Ere  any  names  of  Serf  and  Peer, 
Could  Nature's  equal  scheme  deface; 
New  birth  of  our  new  soil,  the  first  American." 


256       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  pioneer  life  from  which  Lincoln  came  differed  in  impor 
tant  respects  from  the  frontier  democracy  typified  by  Andrew 
Jackson.  Jackson's  democracy  was  contentious,  individualis 
tic,  and  it  sought  the  ideal  of  local  self-government  and  expan 
sion.  Lincoln  represents  rather  the  pioneer  folk  who  entered 
the  forest  of  the  great  Northwest  to  chop  out  a  home,  to  build 
up  their  fortunes  in  the  midst  of  a  continually  ascending  indus 
trial  movement.  In  the  democracy  of  the  Southwest,  indus 
trial  development  and  city  life  were  only  minor  factors,  but 
to  the  democracy  of  the  Northwest  they  were  its  very  life. 
To  widen  the  area  of  the  clearing,  to  contend  with  one  another 
for  the  mastery  of  the  industrial  resources  of  the  rich  prov 
inces,  to  struggle  for  a  place  in  the  ascending  movement  of 
society,  to  transmit  to  one's  offspring  the  chance  for  educa 
tion,  for  industrial  betterment,  for  the  rise  in  life  which  the 
hardships  of  the  pioneer  existence  denied  to  the  pioneer  him 
self,  these  were  some  of  the  ideals  of  the  region  to  which  Lin 
coln  came.  The  men  were  commonwealth  builders,  industry 
builders.  Whereas  the  type  of  hero  in  the  Southwest  was 
militant,  in  the  Northwest  he  was  industrial.  It  was  in  the 
midst  of  these  **  plain  people,"  as  he  loved  to  call  them,  that 
Lincoln  grew  to  manhood.  As  Emerson  says :  "  He  is  the  true 
history  of  the  American  people  in  his  time."  The  years  of 
his  early  life  were  the  years  when  the  democracy  of  the  North 
west  came  into  struggle  with  the  institution  of  slavery  which 
threatened  to  forbid  the  expansion  of  the  democratic  pioneer 
life  in  the  West.  In  President  Eliot's  essay  on  "  Five  Ameri 
can  Contributions  to  Civilization,"  he  instances  as  one  of  the 
supreme  tests  of  American  democracy  its  attitude  upon  the 
question  of  slavery.  But  if  democracy  chose  wisely  and 
worked  effectively  toward  the  solution  of  this  problem,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  Western  democracy  took  the  lead. 


The  rail-splitter  himself  became  the  nation's  President  in  that 
fierce  time  of  struggle,  and  armies  of  the  woodsmen  and  pio 
neer  farmers  recruited  in  the  Old  Northwest  made  free  the 
Father  of  Waters,  marched  through  Georgia,  and  helped  to 
force  the  struggle  to  a  conclusion  at  Appomattox.  The  free 
pioneer  democracy  struck  down  the  slave-holding  aristocracy 
on  its  march  to  the  West. 

The  last  chapter  in  the  development  of  Western  democracy 
is  the  one  that  deals  with  its  conquest  over  the  vast  spaces 
of  the  new  West.  At  each  new  stage  of  Western  development, 
the  people  have  had  to  grapple  with  larger  areas,  with  bigger 
combinations.  The  little  colony  of  Massachusetts  veterans 
that  settled  at  Marietta  received  a  land  grant  as  large  as  the 
State  of  Rhode  Island.  The  band  of  Connecticut  pioneers  that 
followed  Moses  Cleaveland  to  the  Connecticut  Reserve  occu 
pied  a  region  as  large  as  the  parent  State.  The  area  which 
settlers  of  New  England  stock  occupied  on  the  prairies  of 
northern  Illinois  surpassed  the  combined  area  of  Massachu 
setts,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island.  Men  who  had  become 
accustomed  to  the  narrow  valleys  and  the  little  towns  of  the 
East  found  themselves  out  on  the  boundless  spaces  of  the 
West  dealing  with  units  of  such  magnitude  as  dwarfed  their 
former  experience.  The  Great  Lakes,  the  Prairies,  the  Great 
Plains,  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri, 
furnished  new  standards  of  measurement  for  the  achievement 
of  this  industrial  democracy.  Individualism  began  to  give 
way  to  cooperation  and  to  governmental  activity.  Even  in  the 
earlier  days  of  the  democratic  conquest  of  the  wilderness, 
demands  had  been  made  upon  the  government  for  support  in 
internal  improvements,  but  this  new  West  showed  a  growing 
tendency  to  call  to  its  assistance  the  powerful  arm  of  national 
authority.  In  the  period  since  the  Civil  War,  the  vast  public 


258       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

domain  has  been  donated  to  the  individual  farmer,  to  States 
for  education,  to  railroads  for  the  construction  of  transporta 
tion  lines. 

Moreover,  with  the  advent  of  democracy  in  the  last  fif 
teen  years  upon  the  Great  Plains,  new  physical  conditions 
have  presented  themselves  which  have  accelerated  the  social 
tendency  of  Western  democracy.  The  pioneer  farmer  of 
the  days  of  Lincoln  could  place  his  family  on  a  flatboat, 
strike  into  the  wilderness,  cut  out  his  clearing,  and  with  little 
or  no  capital  go  on  to  the  achievement  of  industrial  independ 
ence.  Even  the  homesteader  on  the  Western  prairies  found  it 
possible  to  work  out  a  similar  independent  destiny,  although 
the  factor  of  transportation  made  a  serious  and  increasing 
impediment  to  the  free  working-out  of  his  individual  career. 
But  when  the  arid  lands  and  the  mineral  resources  of  the 
Far  West  were  reached,  no  conquest  was  possible  by  the  old 
individual  pioneer  methods.  Here  expensive  irrigation  works 
must  be  constructed,  cooperative  activity  was  demanded  in 
utilization  of  the  water  supply,  capital  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
small  farmer  was  required.  In  a  word,  the  physiographic 
province  itself  decreed  that  the  destiny  of  this  new  frontier 
should  be  social  rather  than  individual. 

Magnitude  of  social  achievement  is  the  watchword  of  the 
democracy  since  the  Civil  War.  From  petty  towns  built  in  the 
marshes,  cities  arose  whose  greatness  and  industrial  power 
are  the  wonder  of  our  time.  The  conditions  were  ideal  for 
the  production  of  captains  of  industry.  The  old  democratic 
admiration  for  the  self-made  man,  its  old  deference  to  the 
rights  of  competitive  individual  development,  together  with 
the  stupendous  natural  resources  that  opened  to  the  conquest 
of  the  keenest  and  the  strongest,  gave  such  conditions  of 
mobility  as  enabled  the  development  of  the  large  corporate  in 
dustries  which  in  our  own  decade  have  marked  the  West. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY     259 

Thus,  in  brief,  have  been  outlined  the  chief  phases  of  the 
development  of  Western  democracy  in  the  different  areas 
which  it  has  conquered.  There  has  been  a  steady  develop 
ment  of  the  industrial  ideal,  and  a  steady  increase  of  the 
social  tendency,  in  this  later  movement  of  Western  democ 
racy.  While  the  individualism  of  the  frontier,  so  prominent 
in  the  earliest  days  of  the  Western  advance,  has  been  pre 
served  as  an  ideal,  more  and  more  these  individuals  strug 
gling  each  with  the  other,  dealing  with  vaster  and  vaster 
areas,  with  larger  and  larger  problems,  have  found  it  neces 
sary  to  combine  under  the  leadership  of  the  strongest.  This 
is  the  explanation  of  the  rise  of  those  preeminent  captains  of 
industry  whose  genius  has  concentrated  capital  to  control  the 
fundamental  resources  of  the  nation.  If  now  in  the  way  of 
recapitulation,  we  try  to  pick  out  from  the  influences  that 
have  gone  to  the  making  of  Western  democracy  the  factors 
which  constitute  the  net  result  of  this  movement,  we  shall 
have  to  mention  at  least  the  following:  — 

Most  important  of  all  has  been  the  fact  that  an  area  of 
free  land  has  continually  lain  on  the  western  border  of  the 
settled  area  of  the  United  States.  Whenever  social  conditions 
tended  to  crystallize  in  the  East,  whenever  capital  tended  to 
press  upon  labor  or  political  restraints  to  impede  the  freedom 
of  the  mass,  there  was  this  gate  of  escape  to  the  free  conditions 
of  the  frontier.  These  free  lands  promoted  individualism, 
economic  equality,  freedom  to  rise,  democracy.  Men  would 
not  accept  inferior  wages  and  a  permanent  position  of  social 
subordination  when  this  promised  land  of  freedom  and  equal 
ity  was  theirs  for  the  taking.  Who  would  rest  content  under 
oppressive  legislative  conditions  when  with  a  slight  effort  he 
might  reach  a  land  wherein  to  become  a  co-worker  in  the 
building  of  free  cities  and  free  States  on  the  lines  of  his 
own  ideal?  In  a  word,  then,  free  lands  meant  free  oppor- 


260       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

tunities.  Their  existence  has  differentiated  the  American 
democracy  from  the  democracies  which  have  preceded  it, 
because  ever,  as  democracy  in  the  East  took  the  form  of  highly 
specialized  and  complicated  industrial  society,  in  the  West  it 
kept  in  touch  with  primitive  conditions,  and  by  action  and 
reaction  these  two  forces  have  shaped  our  history. 

In  the  next  place,  these  free  lands  and  this  treasury  of  indus 
trial  resources  have  existed  over  such  vast  spaces  that  they 
have  demanded  of  democracy  increasing  spaciousness  of  design 
and  power  of  execution.  Western  democracy  is  contrasted 
with  the  democracy  of  all  other  times  in  the  largeness  of  the 
tasks  to  which  it  has  set  its  hand,  and  in  the  vast  achievements 
which  it  has  wrought  out  in  the  control  of  nature  and  of 
politics.  It  would  be  difficult  to  over-emphasize  the  import 
ance  of  this  training  upon  democracy.  Never  before  in  the 
history  of  the  world  has  a  democracy  existed  on  so  vast  an 
area  and  handled  things  in  the  gross  with  such  success,  with 
such  largeness  of  design,  and  such  grasp  upon  the  means  of 
execution.  In  short,  democracy  has  learned  in  the  West  of 
the  United  States  how  to  deal  with  the  problem  of  magnitude. 
The  old  historic  democracies  were  but  little  states  with  prim 
itive  economic  conditions. 

But  the  very  task  of  dealing  with  vast  resources,  over  vast 
areas,  under  the  conditions  of  free  competition  furnished  by 
the  West,  has  produced  the  rise  of  those  captains  of  industry 
whose  success  in  consolidating  economic  power  now  raises 
the  question  as  to  whether  democracy  under  such  conditions 
can  survive.  For  the  old  military  type  of  Western  leaders 
like  George  Rogers  Clark,  Andrew  Jackson,  and  William  Henry 
Harrison  have  been  substituted  such  industrial  leaders  as 
James  J.  Hill,  John  D.  Rockefeller,  and  Andrew  Carnegie. 

The  question  is  imperative,  then,  What  ideals  persist  from 
this  democratic  experience  of  the  West ;  and  have  they  acquired 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY     261 

sufficient  momentum  to  sustain  themselves  under  conditions  so 
radically  unlike  those  in  the  days  of  their  origin?  In  other 
words,  the  question  put  at  the  beginning  of  this  discussion 
becomes  pertinent.  Under  the  forms  of  the  American  democ 
racy  is  there  in  reality  evolving  such  a  concentration  of  eco 
nomic  and  social  power  in  the  hands  of  a  comparatively  few 
men  as  may  make  political  democracy  an  appearance  rather 
than  a  reality?  The  free  lands  are  gone.  The  material  forces 
that  gave  vitality  to  Western  democracy  are  passing  away.  It 
is  to  the  realm  of  the  spirit,  to  the  domain  of  ideals  and  legis 
lation,  that  we  must  look  for  Western  influence  upon  democ 
racy  in  our  own  days. 

Western  democracy  has  been  from  the  time  of  its  birth 
idealistic.  The  very  fact  of  the  wilderness  appealed  to  men 
as  a  fair,  blank  page  on  which  to  write  a  new  chapter  in  the 
story  of  man's  struggle  for  a  higher  type  of  society.  The 
Western  wilds,  from  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Pacific,  consti 
tuted  the  richest  free  gift  that  was  ever  spread  out  before 
civilized  man.  To  the  peasant  and  artisan  of  the  Old  World, 
bound  by  the  chains  of  social  class,  as  old  as  custom  and  as 
inevitable  as  fate,  the  West  offered  an  exit  into  a  free  life 
and  greater  well-being  among  the  bounties  of  nature,  into 
the  midst  of  resources  that  demanded  manly  exertion,  and 
that  gave  in  return  the  chance  for  indefinite  ascent  in  the 
scale  of  social  advance.  "  To  each  she  offered  gifts  after  his 
will."  Never  again  can  such  an  opportunity  come  to  the 
sons  of  men.  It  was  unique,  and  the  thing  is  so  near  us,  so 
much  a  part  of  our  lives,  that  we  do  not  even  yet  comprehend 
its  full  significance.  The  existence  of  this  land  of  opportu 
nity  has  made  America  the  goal  of  idealists  from  the  days 
of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  With  all  the  materialism  of  the 
pioneer  movements,  this  idealistic  conception  of  the  vacant 
lands  as  an  opportunity  for  a  new  order  of  things  is  unmis- 


262       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

takably  present.     Kipling's  "  Song  of  the  English  "  has  given 
it  expression:- — 


"We  were  dreamers,  dreaming  greatly,  in  the  man-stifled  town; 
We  yearned  beyond  the  sky-line  where  the  strange  roads  go  down. 
Came  the  Whisper,  came  the  Vision,  came  the  Power  with  the  Need, 
Till  the  Soul  that  is  not  man's  soul  was  lent  us  to  lead. 
As  the  deer  breaks  —  as  the  steer  breaks  —  from  the  herd  where  they 

graze, 

In  the  faith  of  little  children  we  went  on  our  ways. 
Then  the  wood  failed  —  then  the  food  failed  —  then  the  last  water  dried  — 
In  the  faith  of  little  children  we  lay  down  and  died. 

"  On  the  sand-drift  —  on  the  veldt-side  —  in  the  fern-scrub  we  lay, 
That  our  sons  might  follow  after  by  the  bones  on  the  way. 
Follow  after  —  follow  after!     We  have  watered  the  root 
And  the  bud  has  come  to  blossom  that  ripens  for  fruit! 
Follow  after  —  we  are  waiting  by  the  trails  that  we  lost 
For  the  sound  of  many  footsteps,  for  the  tread  of  a  host. 

"Follow  after  —  follow  after  —  for  the  harvest  is  sown: 
By  the  bones  about  the  wayside  ye  shall  come  to  your  own!  " 

This  was  the  vision  that  called  to  Roger  Williams, —  that 
"  prophetic  soul  ravished  of  truth  disembodied,"  "  unable  to 
enter  into  treaty  with  its  environment,"  and  forced  to  seek 
the  wilderness.  "  Oh,  how  sweet,"  wrote  William  Penn,  from 
his  forest  refuge,  "  is  the  quiet  of  these  parts,  freed  from  the 
troubles  and  perplexities  of  woeful  Europe."  And  here  he 
projected  what  he  called  his  "  Holy  Experiment  in  Govern 
ment." 

If  the  later  West  offers  few  such  striking  illustrations  of 
the  relation  of  the  wilderness  to  idealistic  schemes,  and  if 
some  of  the  designs  were  fantastic  and  abortive,  none  the 
less  the  influence  is  a  fact.  Hardly  a  Western  State  but  has 
been  the  Mecca  of  some  sect  or  band  of  social  reformers, 
anxious  to  put  into  practice  their  ideals,  in  vacant  land,  far 
removed  from  the  checks  of  a  settled  form  of  social  organiza- 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY      263 

tion.  Consider  the  Dunkards,  the  Icarians,  the  Fourierists, 
the  Mormons,  and  similar  idealists  who  sought  our  Western 
wilds.  But  the  idealistic  influence  is  not  limited  to  the 
dreamers'  conception  of  a  new  State.  It  gave  to  the  pioneer 
farmer  and  city  builder  a  restless  energy,  a  quick  capacity 
for  judgment  and  action,  a  belief  in  liberty,  freedom  of  oppor 
tunity,  and  a  resistance  to  the  domination  of  class  which 
infused  a  vitality  and  power  into  the  individual  atoms  of  this 
democratic  mass.  Even  as  he  dwelt  among  the  stumps  of  his 
newly-cut  clearing,  the  pioneer  had  the  creative  vision  of  a  new 
order  of  society.  In  imagination  he  pushed  back  the  forest 
boundary  to  the  confines  of  a  mighty  Commonwealth;  he  willed 
that  log  cabins  should  become  the  lofty  buildings  of  great 
cities.  He  decreed  that  his  children  should  enter  into  a  herit 
age  of  education,  comfort,  and  social  welfare,  and  for  this 
ideal  he  bore  the  scars  of  the  wilderness.  Possessed  with  this 
idea  he  ennobled  his  task  and  laid  deep  foundations  for  a 
democratic  State.  Nor  was  this  idealism  by  any  means  lim 
ited  to  the  American  pioneer. 

To  the  old  native  democratic  stock  has  been  added  a  vast 
army  of  recruits  from  the  Old  World.  There  are  in  the 
Middle  West  alone  four  million  persons  of  German  parentage 
out  of  a  total  of  seven  millions  in  the  country.  Over  a  million 
persons  of  Scandinavian  parentage  live  in  the  same  region. 
The  democracy  of  the  newer  West  is  deeply  affected  by  the 
ideals  brought  by  these  immigrants  from  the  Old  World.  To 
them  America  was  not  simply  a  new  home;  it  was  a  land  of 
opportunity,  of  freedom,  of  democracy.  It  meant  to  them, 
as  to  the  American  pioneer  that  preceded  them,  the  oppor 
tunity  to  destroy  the  bonds  of  social  caste  that  bound  them  in 
their  older  home,  to  hew  out  for  themselves  in  a  new  country 
a  destiny  proportioned  to  the  powers  that  God  had  given  them, 
a  chance  to  place  their  families  under  better  conditions  and 


264       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

to  win  a  larger  life  than  the  life  that  they  had  left  behind. 
He  who  believes  that  even  the  hordes  of  recent  immigrants 
from  southern  Italy  are  drawn  to  these  shores  by  nothing  more 
than  a  dull  and  blind  materialism  has  not  penetrated  into  the 
heart  of  the  problem.  The  idealism  and  expectation  of  these 
children  of  the  Old  World,  the  hopes  which  they  have  formed 
for  a  newer  and  freer  life  across  the  seas,  are  almost  pathetic 
when  one  considers  how  far  they  are  from  the  possibility  of 
fruition.  He  who  would  take  stock  of  American  democracy 
must  not  forget  the  accumulation  of  human  purposes  and 
ideals  which  immigration  has  added  to  the  American  popu 
lace. 

In  this  connection  it  must  also  be  remembered  that  these 
democratic  ideals  have  existed  at  each  stage  of  the  advance 
of  the  frontier,  and  have  left  behind  them  deep  and  enduring 
effects  on  the  thinking  of  the  whole  country.  Long  after  the 
frontier  period  of  a  particular  region  of  the  United  States 
has  passed  away,  the  conception  of  society,  the  ideals  and 
aspirations  which  it  produced,  persist  in  the  minds  of  the 
people.  So  recent  has  been  the  transition  of  the  greater  por 
tion  of  the  United  States  from  frontier  conditions  to  condi- 
ditions  of  settled  life,  that  we  are,  over  the  large  portion  of 
the  United  States,  hardly  a  generation  removed  from  the 
primitive  conditions  of  the  West.  If,  indeed,  we  ourselves 
were  not  pioneers,  our  fathers  were,  and  the  inherited  ways 
of  looking  at  things,  the  fundamental  assumptions  of  the 
American  people,  have  all  been  shaped  by  this  experience  of 
democracy  on  its  westward  march.  This  experience  has  been 
wrought  into  the  very  warp  and  woof  of  American  thought. 

Even  those  masters  of  industry  and  capital  who  have  risen 
to  power  by  the  conquest  of  Western  resources  came  from 
the  midst  of  this  society  and  still  profess  its  principles.  John 
D.  Rockefeller  was  born  on  a  New  York  farm,  and  began 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY      265 

his  career  as  a  young  business  man  in  St.  Louis.  Marcus 
Hanna  was  a  Cleveland  grocer's  clerk  at  the  age  of  twenty. 
Glaus  Spreckles,  the  sugar  king,  came  from  Germany  as  a 
steerage  passenger  to  the  United  States  in  1848.  Marshall 
Field  was  a  farmer  boy  in  Conway,  Massachusetts,  until  he 
left  to  grow  up  with  the  young  Chicago.  Andrew  Carnegie 
came  as  a  ten-year-old  boy  from  Scotland  to  Pittsburgh,  then 
a  distinctively  Western  town.  He  built  up  his  fortunes  through 
successive  grades  until  he  became  the  dominating  factor  in 
the  great  iron  industries,  and  paved  the  way  for  that  colossal 
achievement,  the  Steel  Trust.  Whatever  may  be  the  tenden 
cies  of  this  corporation,  there  can  be  little  doubt  of  the  demo 
cratic  ideals  of  Mr.  Carnegie  himself.  With  lavish  hand  he 
has  strewn  millions  through  the  United  States  for  the  promo 
tion  of  libraries.  The  effect  of  this  library  movement  in 
perpetuating  the  democracy  that  comes  from  an  intelligent 
and  self-respecting  people  can  hardly  be  measured.  In  his 
"  Triumphant  Democracy,"  published  in  1886,  Mr.  Carnegie, 
the  ironmaster,  said,  in  reference  to  the  mineral  wealth  of  the 
United  States:  "  Thank  God,  these  treasures  are  in  the  hands 
of  an  intelligent  people,  the  Democracy,  to  be  used  for  the 
general  good  of  the  masses,  and  not  made  the  spoils  of  mon- 
archs,  courts,  and  aristocracy,  to  be  turned  to  the  base  and 
selfish  ends  of  a  privileged  hereditary  class."  It  would  be 
hard  to  find  a  more  rigorous  assertion  of  democratic  doctrine 
than  the  celebrated  utterance,  attributed  to  the  same  man, 
that  he  should  feel  it  a  disgrace  to  die  rich. 

In  enumerating  the  services  of  American  democracy,  Presi 
dent  Eliot  included  the  corporation  as  one  of  its  achievements, 
declaring  that  "  freedom  of  incorporation,  though  no  longer 
exclusively  a  democratic  agency,  has  given  a  strong  support 
to  democratic  institutions."  In  one  sense  this  is  doubtless 
true,  since  the  corporation  has  been  one  of  the  means  by 


266       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

which  small  properties  can  be  aggregated  into  an  effective 
working  body.  Socialistic  writers  have  long  been  fond  of 
pointing  out  also  that  these  various  concentrations  pave  the 
way  for  and  make  possible  social  control.  From  this  point 
of  view  it  is  possible  that  the  masters  of  industry  may  prove 
to  be  not  so  much  an  incipient  aristocracy  as  the  pathfinders 
for  democracy  in  reducing  the  industrial  world  to  systematic 
consolidation  suited  to  democratic  control.  The  great  geniuses 
that  have  built  up  the  modern  industrial  concentration  were 
trained  in  the  midst  of  democratic  society.  They  were  the 
product  of  these  democratic  conditions.  Freedom  to  rise  was 
the  very  condition  of  their  existence.  Whether  they  will  be 
followed  by  successors  who  will  adopt  the  exploitation  of  the 
masses,  and  who  will  be  capable  of  retaining  under  efficient 
control  these  vast  resources,  is  one  of  the  questions  which  we 
shall  have  to  face. 

This,  at  least,  is  clear:  American  democracy  is  fundamen 
tally  the  outcome  of  the  experiences  of  the  American  people 
in  dealing  with  the  West.  Western  democracy  through  the 
whole  of  its  earlier  period  tended  to  the  production  of  a 
society  of  which  the  most  distinctive  fact  was  the  freedom 
of  the  individual  to  rise  under  conditions  of  social  mobility, 
and  whose  ambition  was  the  liberty  and  well-being  of  the 
masses.  This  conception  has  vitalized  all  American  democ 
racy,  and  has  brought  it  into  sharp  contrasts  with  the  democ 
racies  of  history,  and  with  those  modern  efforts  of  Europe  to 
create  an  artificial  democratic  order  by  legislation.  The  prob 
lem  of  the  United  States  is  not  to  create  democracy,  but  to 
conserve  democratic  institutions  and  ideals.  In  the  later 
period  of  its  development,  Western  democracy  has  been  gain 
ing  experience  in  the  problem  of  social  control.  It  has  stead 
ily  enlarged  the  sphere  of  its  action  and  the  instruments  for 
its  perpetuation.  By  its  system  of  public  schools,  from  the 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY      267 

grades  to  the  graduate  work  of  the  great  universities,  the  West 
has  created  a  larger  single  body  of  intelligent  plain  people 
than  can  be  found  elsewhere  in  the  world.  Its  political  tend 
encies,  whether  we  consider  Democracy,  Populism,  or  Repub 
licanism,  are  distinctly  in  the  direction  of  greater  social  con 
trol  and  the  conservation  of  the  old  democratic  ideals. 

To  these  ideals  the  West  adheres  with  even  a  passionate 
determination.  If,  in  working  out  its  mastery  of  the  re 
sources  of  the  interior,  it  has  produced  a  type  of  industrial 
leader  so  powerful  as  to  be  the  wonder  of  the  world,  never 
theless,  it  is  still  to  be  determined  whether  these  men  consti 
tute  a  menace  to  democratic  institutions,  or  the  most  efficient 
factor  for  adjusting  democratic  control  to  the  new  conditions. 

Whatever  shall  be  the  outcome  of  the  rush  of  this  huge  indus 
trial  modern  United  States  to  its  place  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth,  the  formation  of  its  Western  democracy  will  always 
remain  one  of  the  wonderful  chapters  in  the  history  of  the 
human  race.  Into  this  vast  shaggy  continent  of  ours  poured 
the  first  feeble  tide  of  European  settlement.  European  men, 
institutions,  and  ideas  were  lodged  in  the  American  wilderness, 
and  this  great  American  West  took  them  to  her  bosom,  taught 
them  a  new  way  of  looking  upon  the  destiny  of  the  common 
man,  trained  them  in  adaptation  to  the  conditions  of  the  New 
World,  to  the  creation  of  new  institutions  to  meet  new  needs; 
and  ever  as  society  on  her  eastern  border  grew  to  resemble 
the  Old  World  in  its  social  forms  and  its  industry,  ever,  as  it 
began  to  lose  faith  in  the  ideals  of  democracy,  she  opened 
new  provinces,  and  dowered  new  democracies  in  her  most  dis 
tant  domains  with  her  material  treasures  and  with  the  enno 
bling  influence  that  the  fierce  love  of  freedom,  the  strength  that 
came  from  hewing  out  a  home,  making  a  school  and  a  church, 
and  creating  a  higher  future  for  his  family,  furnished  to  the 
pioneer. 


268       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

She  gave  to  the  world  such  types  as  the  farmer  Thomas 
Jefferson,  with  his  Declaration  of  Independence,  his  statute 
for  religious  toleration,  and  his  purchase  of  Louisiana.  She 
gave  us  Andrew  Jackson,  that  fierce  Tennessee  spirit  who 
broke  down  the  traditions  of  conservative  rule,  swept  away  the 
privacies  and  privileges  of  officialdom,  and,  like  a  Gothic 
leader,  opened  the  temple  of  the  nation  to  the  populace. 
She  gave  us  Abraham  Lincoln,  whose  gaunt  frontier  form 
and  gnarled,  massive  hand  told  of  the  conflict  with  the  forest, 
whose  grasp  of  the  ax-handle  of  the  pioneer  was  no  firmer 
than  his  grasp  of  the  helm  of  the  ship  of  state  as  it  breasted 
the  seas  of  civil  war.  She  has  furnished  to  this  new  democ 
racy  her  stores  of  mineral  wealth,  that  dwarf  of  those  of  the 
Old  World,  and  her  provinces  that  in  themselves  are  vaster 
and  more  productive  than  most  of  the  nations  of  Europe. 
Out  of  her  bounty  has  come  a  nation  whose  industrial  com 
petition  alarms  the  Old  World,  and  the  masters  of  whose 
resources  wield  wealth  and  power  vaster  than  the  wealth  and 
power  of  kings.  Best  of  all,  the  West  gave,  not  only  to  the 
American,  but  to  the  unhappy  and  oppressed  of  all  lands,  a 
vision  of  hope,  and  assurance  that  the  world  held  a  place 
where  were  to  be  found  high  faith  in  man  and  the  will  and 
power  to  furnish  him  the  opportunity  to  grow  to  the  full  meas 
ure  of  his  own  capacity.  Great  and  powerful  as  are  the  new 
sons  of  her  loins,  the  Republic  is  greater  than  they.  The 
paths  of  the  pioneer  have  widened  into  broad  highways.  The 
forest  clearing  has  expanded  into  affluent  commonwealths. 
Let  us  see  to  it  that  the  ideals  of  the  pioneer  in  his  log  cabin 
shall  enlarge  into  the  spiritual  life  of  a  democracy  where 
civic  power  shall  dominate  and  utilize  individual  achievement 
for  the  common  good. 


X 

PIONEER  IDEALS  AND  THE  STATE  UNIVERSITY1 

The  ideals  of  a  people,  their  aspirations  and  convictions, 
their  hopes  and  ambitions,  their  dreams  and  determinations, 
are  assets  in  their  civilization  as  real  and  important  as  per 
capita  wealth  or  industrial  skill. 

This  nation  was  formed  under  pioneer  ideals.  During  three 
centuries  after  Captain  John  Smith  struck  the  first  blow  at 
the  American  forest  on  the  eastern  edge  of  the  continent,  the 
pioneers  were  abandoning  settled  society  for  the  wilderness, 
seeking,  for  generation  after  generation,  new  frontiers.  Their 
experiences  left  abiding  influences  upon  the  ideas  and  purposes 
of  the  nation.  Indeed  the  older  settled  regions  themselves 
were  shaped  profoundly  by  the  very  fact  that  the  whole  nation 
was  pioneering  and  that  in  the  development  of  the  West  the 
East  had  its  own  part. 

The  first  ideal  of  the  pioneer  was  that  of  conquest.  It  was 
his  task  to  fight  with  nature  for  the  chance  to  exist.  Not  as 
in  older  countries  did  this  contest  take  place  in  a  mythical 
past,  told  in  folk  lore  and  epic.  It  has  been  continuous  to 
our  own  day.  Facing  each  generation  of  pioneers  was  the 
unmastered  continent.  Vast  forests  blocked  the  way;  moun 
tainous  ramparts  interposed;  desolate,  grass-clad  prairies, 
barren  oceans  of  rolling  plains,  arid  deserts,  and  a  fierce  race 
of  savages,  all  had  to  be  met  and  defeated.  The  rifle  and  the 
ax  are  the  symbols  of  the  backwoods  pioneer.  They  meant 

1  Commencement  Address  at  the  University  of  Indiana,  1910. 

269 


270       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

a  training  in  aggressive  courage,  in  domination,  in  directness 
of  action,  in  destructiveness. 

To  the  pioneer  the  forest  was  no  friendly  resource  for  pos 
terity,  no  object  of  careful  economy.  He  must  wage  a  hand- 
to-hand  war  upon  it,  cutting  and  burning  a  little  space  to  let 
in  the  light  upon  a  dozen  acres  of  hard-won  soil,  and  year 
after  year  expanding  the  clearing  into  new  woodlands  against 
the  stubborn  resistance  of  primeval  trunks  and  matted  roots. 
He  made  war  against  the  rank  fertility  of  the  soil.  While 
new  worlds  of  virgin  land  lay  ever  just  beyond,  it  was  idle 
to  expect  the  pioneer  to  stay  his  hand  and  turn  to  scientific 
farming.  Indeed,  as  Secretary  Wilson  has  said,  the  pioneer 
would,  in  that  case,  have  raised  wheat  that  no  one  wanted  to 
eat,  corn  to  store  on  the  farm,  and  cotton  not  worth  the  pick 
ing. 

Thus,  fired  with  the  ideal  of  subduing  the  wilderness,  the 
destroying  pioneer  fought  his  way  across  the  continent,  mas 
terful  and  wasteful,  preparing  the  way  by  seeking  the  imme 
diate  thing,  rejoicing  in  rude  strength  and  wilful  achieve 
ment. 

But  even  this  backwoodsman  was  more  than  a  mere  destroyer. 
He  had  visions.  He  was  finder  as  well  as  fighter  —  the  trail- 
maker  for  civilization,  the  inventor  of  new  ways.  Although 
Rudyard  Kipling's  "  Foreloper  " 2  deals  with  the  English  pio 
neer  in  lands  beneath  the  Southern  Cross,  yet  the  poem  portrays 
American  traits  as  well: 

"The  gull  shall  whistle  in  his  wake,  the  blind  wave  break  m  fire, 
He  shall  fulfill  God's  utmost  will,  unknowing  his  desire; 
And  he  shall  see  old  planets  pass  and  alien  stars  arise, 
And  give  the  gale  his  reckless  sail  in  shadow  of  new  skies. 

2  [Printed   from   an   earlier   version;   since   published  in   his   "Songs 

from  Books,"  p.  93,  under  the  title,  "  The  Voortrekker."  Even  fuller  of 

insight  into  the  idealistic  side  of  the  frontier,  is  his  "Explorer,"  in 
"Collected  Verse,"  p.  19.] 


PIONEER  IDEALS  271 

"Strong  lust  of  gear  shall  drive  him  out  and  hunger  arm  his  hand 

To  wring  food  from  desert  nude,  his  foothold  from  the  sand. 

His  neighbors'  smoke  shall  vex  his  eyes,  their  voices  break  his  rest; 

He  shall  go  forth  till  south  is  north,  sullen  and  dispossessed; 

He  shall  desire  loneliness  and  his  desire  shall  bring 

Hard  on  his  heels,  a  thousand  wheels,  a  people  and  a  king. 

"  He  shall  come  back  on  his  own  track,  and  by  his  scarce  cool  camp, 
There  shall  he  meet  the  roaring  street,  the  derrick  and  the  stamp; 
For  he  must  blaze  a  nation's  way  with  hatchet  and  with  brand, 
Till  on  his  last  won  wilderness  an  empire's  bulwarks  stand." 

This  quest  after  the  unknown,  this  yearning  "  beyond  the 
sky  line,  where  the  strange  roads  go  down,"  is  of  the  very 
essence  of  the  backwoods  pioneer,  even  though  he  was  uncon 
scious  of  its  spiritual  significance. 

The  pioneer  was  taught  in  the  school  of  experience  that  the 
crops  of  one  area  would  not  do  for  a  new  frontier;  that  the 
scythe  of  the  clearing  must  be  replaced  by  the  reaper  of  the 
prairies.  He  was  forced  to  make  old  tools  serve  new  uses; 
to  shape  former  habits,  institutions  and  ideas  to  changed  con 
ditions;  and  to  find  new  means  when  the  old  proved  inapplic 
able.  He  was  building  a  new  society  as  well  as  breaking 
new  soil;  he  had  the  ideal  of  nonconformity  and  of  change. 
He  rebelled  against  the  conventional. 

Besides  the  ideals  of  conquest  and  of  discovery,  the  pioneer 
had  the  ideal  of  personal  development,  free  from  social  and 
governmental  constraint.  He  came  from  a  civilization  based 
on  individual  competition,  and  he  brought  the  conception  with 
him  to  the  wilderness  where  a  wealth  of  resources,  and  innu 
merable  opportunities  gave  it  a  new  scope.  The  prizes  were 
for  the  keenest  and  the  strongest;  for  them  were  the  best 
bottom  lands,  the  finest  timber  tracts,  the  best  salt-springs, 
the  richest  ore  beds;  and  not  only  these  natural  gifts,  but 
also  the  opportunities  afforded  in  the  midst  of  a  forming 
society.  Here  were  mill  sites,  town  sites,  transportation  lines, 


272       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

banking  centers,  openings  in  the  law,  in  politics  —  all  the 
varied  chances  for  advancement  afforded  in  a  rapidly  develop 
ing  society  where  everything  was  open  to  him  who  knew  how 
to  seize  the  opportunity. 

The  squattej  enforced  his  claim  to  lands  even  against  the 
government's  title  by  the  use  of  extra-legal  combinations  and 
force.  He  appealed  to  lynch  law  with  little  hesitation.  He 
was  impatient  of  any  governmental  restriction  upon  his  indi 
vidual  right  to  deal  with  the  wilderness. 

In  our  own  day  we  sometimes  hear  of  congressmen  sent  to 
jail  for  violating  land  laws;  but  the  different  spirit  in  the 
pioneer  days  may  be  illustrated  by  a  speech  of  Delegate  Sib- 
ley  of  Minnesota  in  Congress  in  1852.  In  view  of  the  fact 
that  he  became  the  State's  first  governor,  a  regent  of  its  univer 
sity,  president  of  its  historical  society,  and  a  doctor  of  laws 
of  Princeton,  we  may  assume  that  he  was  a  pillar  of  society. 
He  said: 

The  government  has  watched  its  public  domain 
with  jealous  eye,  and  there  are  now  enactments 
upon  your  statute  books,  aimed  at  the  trespassers 
upon  it,  which  should  be  expunged  as  a  disgrace 
to  the  country  and  to  the  nineteenth  century. 
Especially  is  he  pursued  with  unrelenting  severity, 
who  has  dared  to  break  the  silence  of  the  pri 
meval  forest  by  the  blows  of  the  American  ax.  The 
hardy  lumberman  who  has  penetrated  to  the 
remotest  wilds  of  the  Northwest,  to  drag  from  their 
recesses  the  materials  for  building  up  towns  and 
cities  in  the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  has 
been  particularly  marked  out  as  a  victim.  After 
enduring  all  the  privations  and  subjecting  himself 
to  all  the  perils  incident  to  his  vocation  —  when 


PIONEER  IDEALS  273 

he  has  toiled  for  months  to  add  by  his  honest  labor 
to  the  comfort  of  his  fellow  men,  and  to  the  aggre 
gate  wealth  of  the  nation,  he  finds  himself  sud 
denly  in  the  clutches  of  the  law  for  trespassing  on 
the  public  domain.  The  proceeds  of  his  long  win 
ter's  work  are  reft  from  him,  and  exposed  to  pub 
lic  sale  for  the  benefit  of  his  paternal  govern 
ment  .  .  .  and  the  object  of  this  oppression  and 
wrong  is  further  harassed  by  vexatious  law  pro 
ceedings  against  him. 

Sibley's  protest  in  congress  against  these  "  outrages "  by 
which  the  northern  lumbermen  were  "  harassed "  in  their 
work  of  what  would  now  be  called  stealing  government  tim 
ber,  aroused  no  protest  from  his  colleagues.  No  president 
called  this  congressman  an  undesirable  citizen  or  gave  him 
over  to  the  courts. 

Thus  many  of  the  pioneers,  following  the  ideal  of  the  right 
of  the  individual  to  rise,  subordinated  the  rights  of  the  nation 
and  posterity  to  the  desire  that  the  country  should  be  "  devel 
oped  "  and  that  the  individual  should  advance  with  as  little 
interference  as  possible.  Squatter  doctrines  and  individual 
ism  have  left  deep  traces  upon  American  conceptions. 

But  quite  as  deeply  fixed  in  the  pioneer's  mind  as  the  ideal 
of  individualism  was  the  ideal  of  democracy.  He  had  a  pas 
sionate  hatred  for  aristocracy,  monopoly  and  special  priv 
ilege;  he  believed  in  simplicity,  economy  and  in  the  rule  of 
the  people.  It  is  true  that  he  honored  the  successful  man, 
and  that  he  strove  in  all  ways  to  advance  himself.  But  the 
West  was  so  free  and  so  vast,  the  barriers  to  individual  achieve 
ment  were  so  remote,  that  the  pioneer  was  hardly  conscious 
that  any  danger  to  equality  could  come  from  his  competition 
for  natural  resources.  He  thought  of  democracy  as  in  some 


274       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

way  the  result  of  our  political  institutions,  and  he  failed  to 
see  that  it  was  primarily  the  result  of  the  free  lands  and 
immense  opportunities  which  surrounded  him.  Occasional 
statesmen  voiced  the  idea  that  American  democracy  was  based 
on  the  abundance  of  unoccupied  land,  even  in  the  first  debates 
on  the  public  domain. 

This  early  recognition  of  the  influence  of  abundance  of  land 
in  shaping  the  economic  conditions  of  American  democracy 
is  peculiarly  significant  to-day  in  view  of  the  practical  exhaus 
tion  of  the  supply  of  cheap  arable  public  lands  open  to  the 
poor  man,  and  the  coincident  development  of  labor  unions  to 
keep  up  wages. 

Certain  it  is  that  the  strength  of  democratic  movements 
has  chiefly  lain  in  the  regions  of  the  pioneer.  "  Our  gov 
ernments  tend  too  much  to  democracy,"  wrote  Izard,  of  South 
Carolina,  to  Jefferson,  in  1785.  "  A  handicraftsman  thinks 
an  apprenticeship  necessary  to  make  him  acquainted  with  his 
business.  But  our  backcountrymen  are  of  the  opinion  that  a 
politician  may  be  born  just  as  well  as  a  poet." 

The  Revolutionary  ideas,  of  course,  gave  a  great  impetus 
to  democracy,  and  in  substantially  every  colony  there  was  a 
double  revolution,  one  for  independence  and  the  other  for 
the  overthrow  of  aristocratic  control.  But  in  the  long  run 
the  effective  force  behind  American  democracy  was  the  pres 
ence  of  the  practically  free  land  into  which  men  might  escape 
from  oppression  or  inequalities  which  burdened  them  in  the 
older  settlements.  This  possibility  compelled  the  coastwise 
States  to  liberalize  the  franchise;  and  it  prevented  the  forma 
tion  of  a  dominant  class,  whether  based  on  property  or  on 
custom.  Among  the  pioneers  one  man  was  as  good  as  his 
neighbor.  He  had  the  same  chance;  conditions  were  simple 
and  free.  Economic  equality  fostered  political  equality.  An 
optimistic  and  buoyant  belief  in  the  worth  of  the  plain  people, 


PIONEER  IDEALS  275 

a  devout  faith  in  man  prevailed  in  the  West.  Democracy  be 
came  almost  the  religion  of  the  pioneer.  He  held  with  pas 
sionate  devotion  the  idea  that  he  was  building  under  free 
dom  a  new  society,  based  on  self  government,  and  for  the 
welfare  of  the  average  man. 

And  yet  even  as  he  proclaimed  the  gospel  of  democracy 
the  pioneer  showed  a  vague  apprehension  lest  the  time  be 
short  —  lest  equality  should  not  endure  —  lest  he  might  fall 
behind  in  the  ascending  movement  of  Western  society.  This 
led  him  on  in  feverish  haste  to  acquire  advantages  as  though 
he  only  half  believed  his  dream.  "  Before  him  lies  a  bound 
less  continent,"  wrote  De  Tocqueville,  in  the  days  when  pioneer 
democracy  was  triumphant  under  Jackson,  "  and  he  urges  for 
ward  as  if  time  pressed  and  he  was  afraid  of  finding  no  room 
for  his  exertions." 

Even  while  Jackson  lived,  labor  leaders  and  speculative 
thinkers  were  demanding  legislation  to  place  a  limit  on  the 
amount  of  land  which  one  person  might  acquire  and  to  provide 
free  farms.  De  Tocqueville  saw  the  signs  of  change. 
"  Between  the  workman  and  the  master,"  he  said,  "  there  are 
frequent  relations  but  no  real  association.  ...  I  am  of  the 
opinion,  upon  the  whole,  that  the  manufacturing  aristocracy 
which  is  growing  up  under  our  eyes  is  one  of  the  harshest 
which  ever  existed  in  the  world;  ...  if  ever  a  permanent 
inequality,  of  conditions  and  aristocracy  again  penetrate  into 
the  world,  it  may  be  predicted  that  this  is  the  gate  by  which 
they  will  enter."  But  the  sanative  influences  of  the  free  spaces 
of  the  West  were  destined  to  ameliorate  labor's  condition,  to 
afford  new  hopes  and  new  faith  to  pioneer  democracy,  and  to 
postpone  the  problem. 

As  the  settlers  advanced  into  provinces  whose  area  dwarfed 
that  of  the  older  sections,  pioneer  democracy  itself  began  to 
undergo  changes,  both  in  its  composition  and  in  its  processes 


276       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  expansion.  At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  when  settlement 
was  spreading  with  greatest  vigor  across  the  Mississippi,  the 
railways  began  their  work  as  colonists.  Their  land  grants 
from  the  government,  amounting  altogether  by  1871  to  an  area 
five  times  that  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  demanded  pur 
chasers,  and  so  the  railroads  pioneered  the  way  for  the  pioneer. 

The  homestead  law  increased  the  tide  of  settlers.  The 
improved  farm  machinery  made  it  possible  for  him  to  go 
boldly  out  on  to  the  prairie  and  to  deal  effectively  with  virgin 
soil  in  farms  whose  cultivated  area  made  the  old  clearings  of 
the  backwoodsman  seem  mere  garden  plots.  Two  things 
resulted  from  these  conditions,  which  profoundly  modified 
pioneer  ideals.  In  the  first  place  the  new  form  of  coloniza 
tion  demanded  an  increasing  use  of  capital;  and  the  rapidity 
of  the  formation  of  towns,  the  speed  with  which  society  devel 
oped,  made  men  the  more  eager  to  secure  bank  credit  to  deal 
with  the  new  West.  This  made  the  pioneer  more  dependent 
on  the  eastern  economic  forces.  In  the  second  place  the  farmer 
became  dependent  as  never  before  on  transportation  com 
panies.  In  this  speculative  movement  the  railroads,  finding 
that  they  had  pressed  too  far  in  advance  and  had  issued  stock 
to  freely  for  their  earnings  to  justify  the  face  of  the  invest 
ment,  came  into  collision  with  the  pioneer  on  the  question  of 
rates  and  of  discriminations.  The  Greenback  movement  and 
the  Granger  movements  were  appeals  to  government  to  prevent 
what  the  pioneer  thought  to  be  invasions  of  pioneer  democ 
racy. 

As  the  western  settler  began  to  face  the  problem  of  mag 
nitude  in  the  areas  he  was  occupying;  as  he  began  to  ad 
just  his  life  to  the  modern  forces  of  capital  and  to  complex 
productive  processes;  as  he  began  to  see  that,  go  where  he 
would,  the  question  of  credit  and  currency,  of  transportation 
and  distribution  in  general  conditioned  his  success,  he  sought 


PIONEER  IDEALS  277 

relief  by  legislation.  He  began  to  lose  his  primitive  attitude 
of  individualism,  government  began  to  look  less  like  a  neces 
sary  evil  and  more  like  an  instrument  for  the  perpetuation  of 
his  democratic  ideals.  In  brief,  the  defenses  of  the  pioneer 
democrat  began  to  shift  from  free  land  to  legislation,  from 
the  ideal  of  individualism  to  the  ideal  of  social  control 
through  regulation  by  law.  He  had  no  sympathy  with  a  rad 
ical  reconstruction  of  society  by  the  revolution  of  socialism; 
even  his  alliances  with  the  movement  of  organized  labor, 
which  paralleled  that  of  organized  capital  in  the  East,  were 
only  half-hearted.  But  he  was  becoming  alarmed  over  the 
future  of  the  free  democratic  ideal.  The  wisdom  of  his  legis 
lation  it  is  not  necessary  to  discuss  here.  The  essential  point 
is  that  his  conception  of  the  right  of  government  to  control 
social  process  had  undergone  a  change.  He  was  coming  to 
regard  legislation  as  an  instrument  of  social  construction. 
The  individualism  of  the  Kentucky  pioneer  of  1796  was  giv 
ing  way  to  the  Populism  of  the  Kansas  pioneer  of  1896. 

The  later  days  of  pioneer  democracy  are  too  familiar  to 
require  much  exposition.  But  they  are  profoundly  signifi 
cant.  As  the  pioneer  doctrine  of  free  competition  for  the 
resources  of  the  nation  revealed  its  tendencies;  as  individual, 
corporation  and  trust,  like  the  pioneer,  turned  increasingly  to 
legal  devices  to  promote  their  contrasting  ideals,  the  natural 
resources  were  falling  into  private  possession.  Tides  of  alien 
immigrants  were  surging  into  the  country  to  replace  the  old 
American  stock  in  the  labor  market,  to  lower  the  standard  of 
living  and  to  increase  the  pressure  of  population  upon  the 
land.  These  recent  foreigners  have  lodged  almost  exclusively 
in  the  dozen  great  centers  of  industrial  life,  and  there  they 
have  accented  the  antagonisms  between  capital  and  labor  by 
the  fact  that  the  labor  supply  has  become  increasingly  foreign 
born,  and  recruited  from  nationalities  who  arouse  no  sym- 


278       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

pathy  on  the  part  of  capital  and  little  on  the  part  of  the  gen 
eral  public.  Class  distinctions  are  accented  by  national  preju 
dices,  and  democracy  is  thereby  invaded.  But  even  in  the 
dull  brains  of  great  masses  of  these  unfortunates  from  south 
ern  and  eastern  Europe  the  idea  of  America  as  the  land  of 
freedom  and  of  opportunity  to  rise,  the  land  of  pioneer  demo 
cratic  ideals,  has  found  lodgment,  and  if  it  is  given  time  and 
is  not  turned  into  revolutionary  lines  it  will  fructify. 

As  the  American  pioneer  passed  on  in  advance  of  this  new 
tide  of  European  immigration,  he  found  lands  increasingly 
limited.  In  place  of  the  old  lavish  opportunity  for  the  set 
tler  to  set  his  stakes  where  he  would,  there  were  frantic  rushes 
of  thousands  of  eager  pioneers  across  the  line  of  newly  opened 
Indian  reservations.  Even  in  1889,  when  Oklahoma  was 
opened  to  settlement,  twenty  thousand  settlers  crowded  at  the 
boundaries,  like  straining  athletes,  waiting  the  bugle  note  that 
should  start  the  race  across  the  line.  To-day  great  crowds 
gather  at  the  land  lotteries  of  the  government  as  the  remaining 
fragments  of  the  public  domain  are  flung  to  hungry  set 
tlers. 

Hundreds  of  thousands  of  pioneers  from  the  Middle  West 
have  crossed  the  national  boundary  into  Canadian  wheat  fields 
eager  to  find  farms  for  their  children,  although  under  an 
alien  flag.  And  finally  the  government  has  taken  to  itself 
great  areas  of  arid  land  for  reclamation  by  costly  irrigation 
projects  whereby  to  furnish  twenty-acre  tracts  in  the  desert 
to  settlers  under  careful  regulation  of  water  rights.  The  gov 
ernment  supplies  the  capital  for  huge  irrigation  dams  and 
reservoirs  and  builds  them  itself.  It  owns  and  operates  quar 
ries,  coal  mines  and  timber  to  facilitate  this  work.  It  seeks 
the  remotest  regions  of  the  earth  for  crops  suitable  for  these 
areas.  It  analyzes  the  soils  and  tells  the  farmer  what  and 
when  and  how  to  plant.  It  has  even  considered  the  rental 


PIONEER  IDEALS  279 

to  manufacturers  of  the  surplus  water,  electrical  and  steam 
power  generated  in  its  irrigation  works  and  the  utilization  of 
this  power  to  extract  nitrates  from  the  air  to  replenish  worn- 
out  soils.  The  pioneer  of  the  arid  regions  must  be  both  a 
capitalist  and  the  protege  of  the  government. 

Consider  the  contrast  between  the  conditions  of  the  pioneers 
at  the  beginning  and  at  the  end  of  this  period  of  development. 
Three  hundred  years  ago  adventurous  Englishmen  on  the  coast 
of  Virginia  began  the  attack  on  the  wilderness.  Three  years 
ago  the  President  of  the  United  States  summoned  the  governors 
of  forty-six  states  to  deliberate  upon  the  danger  of  the  exhaus 
tion  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  nation.3 

The  pressure  of  population  upon  the  food  supply  is  already 
felt  and  we  are  at  the  beginning  only  of  this  transformation. 
It  is  profoundly  significant  that  at  the  very  time  when  Amer 
ican  democracy  is  becoming  conscious  that  its  pioneer  basis 
of  free  land  and  sparse  population  is  giving  way,  it  is  also 
brought  face  to  face  with  the  startling  outcome  of  its  old 
ideals  of  individualism  and  exploitation  under  competition 
uncontrolled  by  government.  Pioneer  society  itself  was  not 
sufficiently  sophisticated  to  work  out  to  its  logical  result  the 
conception  of  the  self-made  man.  But  the  captains  of  indus 
try  by  applying  squatter  doctrines  to  the  evolution  of  Amer 
ican  industrial  society,  have  made  the  process  so  clear  that 
he  who  runs  may  read.  Contests  imply  alliances  as  well  as 
rivalries.  The  increasing  magnitude  of  the  areas  to  be  dealt 
with  and  the  occurrences  of  times  of  industrial  stress  fur 
nished  occasion  for  such  unions.  The  panic  of  1873  was 
followed  by  an  unprecedented  combination  of  individual  busi 
nesses  and  partnerships  into  corporations.  The  panic  of  1893 
marked  the  beginning  of  an  extraordinary  development  of  cor 
porate  combinations  into  pools  and  trusts,  agreements  and 
8  Written  in  1910. 


280       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

absorptions,  until,  by  the  time  of  the  panic  of  1907,  it  seemed 
not  impossible  that  the  outcome  of  free  competition  under 
individualism  was  to  be  monopoly  of  the  most  important  nat 
ural  resources  and  processes  by  a  limited  group  of  men  whose 
vast  fortunes  were  so  invested  in  allied  and  dependent  indus 
tries  that  they  constituted  the  dominating  force  in  the  indus 
trial  life  of  the  nation.  The  development  of  large  scale  fac 
tory  production,  the  benefit  of  combination  in  the  competitive 
struggle,  and  the  tremendous  advantage  of  concentration  in 
securing  possession  of  the  unoccupied  opportunities,  were  so 
great  that  vast  accumulations  of  capital  became  the  normal 
agency  of  the  industrial  world.  In  almost  exact  ratio  to  the 
diminution  of  the  supply  of  unpossessed  resources,  combina 
tions  of  capital  have  increased  in  magnitude  and  in  efficiency 
of  conquest.  The  solitary  backwoodsman  wielding  his  ax  at 
the  edge  of  a  measureless  forest  is  replaced  by  companies 
capitalized  at  millions,  operating  railroads,  sawmills,  and  all 
the  enginery  of  modern  machinery  to  harvest  the  remaining 
trees.4 

A  new  national  development  is  before  us  without  the  former 
safety  valve  of  abundant  resources  open  to  him  who  would 
take.  Classes  are  becoming  alarmingly  distinct:  There  is  the 
demand  on  the  one  side  voiced  by  Mr.  Harriman  so  well  and 
by  others  since,  that  nothing  must  be  done  to  interfere  with 
the  early  pioneer  ideals  of  the  exploitation  and  the  develop 
ment  of  the  country's  wealth;  that  restrictive  and  reforming 
legislation  must  on  no  account  threaten  prosperity  even  for 
a  moment.  In  fact,  we  sometimes  hear  in  these  days,  from 
men  of  influence,  serious  doubts  of  democracy,  and  intima 
tions  that  the  country  would  be  better  off  if  it  freely  resigned 
itself  to  guidance  by  the  geniuses  who  are  mastering  the  eco 
nomic  forces  of  the  nation,  and  who,  it  is  alleged,  would  work 

*  Omissions  from  the  original  are  incorporated  in  later  chapters. 


PIONEER  IDEALS  281 

out  the  prosperity  of  the  United  States  more  effectively,  if 
unvexed  by  politicians  and  people. 

On  the  other  hand,  an  inharmonious  group  of  reformers  are 
sounding  the  warning  that  American  democratic  ideals  and 
society  are  menaced  and  already  invaded  by  the  very  condi 
tions  that  make  this  apparent  prosperity;  that  the  economic 
resources  are  no  longer  limitless  and  free;  that  the  aggregate 
national  wealth  is  increasing  at  the  cost  of  present  social 
justice  and  moral  health,  and  the  future  well-being  of  the 
American  people.  The  Granger  and  the  Populist  were 
prophets  of  this  reform  movement.  Mr.  Bryan's  Democracy, 
Mr.  Debs'  Socialism,  and  Mr.  Roosevelt's  Republicanism  all 
had  in  common  the  emphasis  upon  the  need  of  governmental 
regulation  of  industrial  tendencies  in  the  interest  of  the  common 
man;  the  checking  of  the  power  of  those  business  Titans  who 
emerged  successful  out  of  the  competitive  individualism  of 
pioneer  America.  As  land  values  rise,  as  meat  and  bread 
grow  dearer,  as  the  process  of  industrial  consolidation  goes 
on,  and  as  Eastern  industrial  conditions  spread  across  the 
West,  the  problems  of  traditional  American  democracy  will 
become  increasingly  grave. 

The  time  has  come  when  University  men  may  well  consider 
pioneer  ideals,  for  American  society  has  reached  the  end  of  the 
first  great  period  in  its  formation.  It  must  survey  itself,  reflect 
upon  its  origins,  consider  what  freightage  of  purposes  it  car 
ried  in  its  long  march  across  the  continent,  what  ambitions  it 
had  for  the  man,  what  role  it  would  play  in  the  world.  How 
shall  we  conserve  what  was  best  in  pioneer  ideals?  How 
adjust  the  old  conceptions  to  the  changed  conditions  of  mod 
ern  life? 

Other  nations  have  been  rich  and  prosperous  and  powerful. 
But  the  United  States  has  believed  that  it  had  an  original  con 
tribution  to  make  to  the  history  of  society  by  the  production 


282       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  a  self-determining,  self-restrained,  intelligent  democracy. 
It  is  in  the  Middle  West  that  society  has  formed  on  lines  least 
like  those  of  Europe.  It  is  here,  if  anywhere,  that  American 
democracy  will  make  its  stand  against  the  tendency  to  adjust  to 
a  European  type. 

This  consideration  gives  importance  to  my  final  topic,  the 
relation  of  the  University  to  pioneer  ideals  and  to  the  chang 
ing  conditions  of  American  democracy.  President  Pritchett 
of  the  Carnegie  Foundation  has  recently  declared  that  in  no 
other  form  of  popular  activity  does  a  nation  or  State  so  clearly 
reveal  its  ideals  or  the  quality  of  its  civilization  as  in  its  sys 
tem  of  education;  and  he  finds,  especially  in  the  State  Uni 
versity,  "  a  conception  of  education  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  whole  people."  "  If  our  American  democracy  were  to-day 
called  to  give  proof  of  its  constructive  ability,"  he  says,  "  the 
State  University  and  the  public  school  system  which  it  crowns 
would  be  the  strongest  evidence  of  its  fitness  which  it  could 
offer." 

It  may  at  least  be  conceded  that  an  essential  characteristic 
of  the  State  University  is  its  democracy  in  the  largest  sense. 
The  provision  in  the  Constitution  of  Indiana  of  1816,  so  famil 
iar  to  you  all,  for  a  "  general  system  of  education  ascending  in 
regular  gradations  from  township  schools  to  a  State  Univer 
sity,  wherein  tuition  shall  be  gratis  and  equally  open  to  all," 
expresses  the  Middle  Western  conception  born  in  the  days  of 
pioneer  society  and  doubtless  deeply  influenced  by  Jeffersonian 
democracy. 

The  most  obvious  fact  about  these  universities,  perhaps,  lies 
in  their  integral  relation  with  the  public  schools,  whereby  the 
pupil  has  pressed  upon  him  the  question  whether  he  shall  go 
to  college,  and  whereby  the  road  is  made  open  and  direct  to 
the  highest  training.  By  this  means  the  State  offers  to  every 
class  the  means  of  education,  and  even  engages  in  propaganda 


PIONEER  IDEALS  283 

to  induce  students  to  continue.  It  sinks  deep  shafts  through 
the  social  strata  to  find  the  gold  of  real  ability  in  the  underly 
ing  rock  of  the  masses.  It  fosters  that  due  degree  of  individ 
ualism  which  is  implied  in  the  right  of  every  human  being 
to  have  opportunity  to  rise  in  whatever  directions  his  peculiar 
abilities  entitle  him  to  go,  subordinate  to  the  welfare  of  the 
state.  It  keeps  the  avenues  of  promotion  to  the  highest  offices, 
the  highest  honors,  open  to  the  humblest  and  most  obscure 
lad  who  has  the  natural  gifts,  at  the  same  time  that  it  aids 
in  the  improvement  of  the  masses. 

Nothing  in  our  educational  history  is  more  striking  than 
the  steady  pressure  of  democracy  upon  its  universities  to  adapt 
them  to  the  requirements  of  all  the  people.  From  the  State 
Universities  of  the  Middle  West,  shaped  under  pioneer  ideals, 
have  come  the  fuller  recognition  of  scientific  studies,  and  espe 
cially  those  of  applied  science  devoted  to  the  conquest  of 
nature;  the  breaking  down  of  the  traditional  required  curric 
ulum;  the  union  of  vocational  and  college  work  in  the  same 
institution;  the  development  of  agricultural  and  engineering 
colleges  and  business  courses;  the  training  of  lawyers,  admin 
istrators,  public  men,  and  journalists  —  all  under  the  ideal  of 
service  to  democracy  rather  than  of  individual  advancement 
alone.  Other  universities  do  the  same  thing;  but  the  head 
springs  and  the  main  current  of  this  great  stream  of  tendency 
come  from  the  land  of  the  pioneers,  the  democratic  states  of 
the  Middle  West.  And  the  people  themselves,  through  their 
boards  of  trustees  and  the  legislature,  are  in  the  last  resort  the 
court  of  appeal  as  to  the  directions  and  conditions  of  growth, 
as  well  as  have  the  fountain  of  income  from  which  these 
universities  derive  their  existence. 

The  State  University  has  thus  both  a  peculiar  power  in  the 
directness  of  its  influence  upon  the  whole  people  and  a  pecul 
iar  limitation  in  its  dependence  upon  the  people.  The 


284       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

ideals  of  the  people  constitute  the  atmosphere  in  which  it 
moves,  though  it  can  itself  affect  this  atmosphere.  Herein 
is  the  source  of  its  strength  and  the  direction  of  its  difficulties. 
For  to  fulfil  its  mission  of  uplifting  the  state  to  continuously 
higher  levels  the  University  must,  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Bryce, 
"  serve  the  time  without  yielding  to  it ;  "  it  must  recognize  new 
needs  without  becoming  subordinate  to  the  immediately  prac 
tical,  to  the  short-sightedly  expedient.  It  must  not  sacrifice 
the  higher  efficiency  for  the  more  obvious  but  lower  efficiency. 
It  must  have  the  wisdom  to  make  expenditures  for  results 
which  pay  manifold  in  the  enrichment  of  civilization,  but 
which  are  not  immediate  and  palpable. 

In  the  transitional  condition  of  American  democracy  which 
I  have  tried  to  indicate,  the  mission  of  the  university  is  most 
important.  The  times  call  for  educated  leaders.  General 
experience  and  rule-of-thumb  information  are  inadequate  for 
the  solution  of  the  problems  of  a  democracy  which  no  longer 
owns  the  safety  fund  of  an  unlimited  quantity  of  untouched 
resources.  Scientific  farming  must  increase  the  yield  of 
the  field,  scientific  forestry  must  economize  the  woodlands, 
scientific  experiment  and  construction  by  chemist,  physicist, 
biologist  and  engineer  must  be  applied  to  all  of  nature's 
forces  in  our  complex  modern  society.  The  test  tube  and  the 
microscope  are  needed  rather  than  ax  and  rifle  in  this  new 
ideal  of  conquest.  The  very  discoveries  of  science  in  such 
fields  as  public  health  and  manufacturing  processes  have  made 
it  necessary  to  depend  upon  the  expert,  and  if  the  ranks  of 
experts  are  to  be  recruited  broadly  from  the  democratic  masses 
as  well  as  from  those  of  larger  means,  the  State  Universities 
must  furnish  at  least  as  liberal  opportunities  for  research  and 
training  as  the  universities  based  on  private  endowments  fur 
nish.  It  needs  no  argument  to  show  that  it  is  not  to  the 


PIONEER  IDEALS  285 

advantage  of  democracy  to  give  over  the  training  of  the  expert 
exclusively  to  privately  endowed  institutions. 

But  quite  as  much  in  the  field  of  legislation  and  of  pub 
lic  life  in  general  as  in  the  industrial  world  is  the  expert 
needed.  The  industrial  conditions  which  shape  society  are 
too  complex,  problems  of  labor,  finance,  social  reform  too  diffi 
cult  to  be  dealt  with  intelligently  and  wisely  without  the 
leadership  of  highly  educated  men  familiar  with  the  legisla 
tion  and  literature  on  social  questions  in  other  States  and 
nations. 

By  training  in  science,  in  law,  politics,  economics  and  his 
tory  the  universities  may  supply  from  the  ranks  of  democracy 
administrators,  legislators,  judges  and  experts  for  commis 
sions  who  shall  disinterestedly  and  intelligently  mediate 
between  contending  interests.  When  the  words  "  capitalistic 
classes  "  and  "  the  proletariate  "  can  be  used  and  understood 
in  America  it  is  surely  time  to  develop  such  men,  with  the 
ideal  of  service  to  the  State,  who  may  help  to  break  the  force 
of  these  collisions,  to  find  common  grounds  between  the  con 
testants  and  to  possess  the  respect  and  confidence  of  all  par 
ties  which  are  genuinely  loyal  to  the  best  American  ideals. 

The  signs  of  such  a  development  are  already  plain  in  the  ex 
pert  commissions  of  some  States;  in  the  increasing  proportion 
of  university  men  in  legislatures;  in  the  university  men's  influ 
ence  in  federal  departments  and  commissions.  It  is  hardly  too 
much  to  say  that  the  best  hope  of  intelligent  and  principled 
progress  in  economic  and  social  legislation  and  administration 
lies  in  the  increasing  influence  of  American  universities.  By 
sending  out  these  open-minded  experts,  by  furnishing  well- 
fitted  legislators,  public  leaders  and  teachers,  by  graduating 
successive  armies  of  enlightened  citizens  accustomed  to  deal 
dispassionately  with  the  problems  of  modern  life,  able  to 


286       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

think  for  themselves,  governed  not  by  ignorance,  by  prejudice 
or  by  impulse,  but  by  knowledge  and  reason  and  high-minded- 
ness,  the  State  Universities  will  safeguard  democracy.  With 
out  such  leaders  and  followers  democratic  reactions  may  create 
revolutions,  but  they  will  not  be  able  to  produce  industrial 
and  social  progress.  America's  problem  is  not  violently  to 
introduce  democratic  ideals,  but  to  preserve  and  entrench 
them  by  courageous  adaptation  to  new  conditions.  Educated 
leadership  sets  bulwarks  against  both  the  passionate  impulses 
of  the  mob  and  the  sinister  designs  of  those  who  would  sub 
ordinate  public  welfare  to  private  greed.  Lord  Bacon's 
splendid  utterance  still  rings  true:  "The  learning  of  the  few 
is  despotism;  the  learning  of  the  many  is  liberty.  And  intelli 
gent  and  principled  liberty  is  fame,  wisdom  and  power." 

There  is  a  danger  to  the  universities  in  this  very  oppor 
tunity.  At  first  pioneer  democracy  had  scant  respect  for  the 
expert.  He  believed  that  "  a  fool  can  put  on  his  coat  better 
than  a  wise  man  can  do  it  for  him."  There  is  much  truth 
in  the  belief;  and  the  educated  leader,  even  he  who  has  been 
trained  under  present  university  conditions,  in  direct  contact 
with  the  world  about  him,  will  still  have  to  contend  with  this 
inherited  suspicion  of  the  expert.  But  if  he  be  well  trained 
and  worthy  of  his  training,  if  he  be  endowed  with  creative 
imagination  and  personality,  he  will  make  good  his  leadership. 

A  more  serious  danger  will  come  when  the  universities  are 
fully  recognized  as  powerful  factors  in  shaping  the  life  of  the 
State  —  not  mere  cloisters,  remote  from  its  life,  but  an  influen 
tial  element  in  its  life.  Then  it  may  easily  happen  that  the 
smoke  of  the  battle-field  of  political  and  social  controversy 
will  obscure  their  pure  air,  that  efforts  will  be  made  to  stamp 
out  the  exceptional  doctrine  and  the  exceptional  man.  Those 
who  investigate  and  teach  within  the  university  walls  must 
respond  to  the  injunction  of  the  church,  "  Sursum  corda"  — 


PIONEER  IDEALS  287 

lift  up  the  heart  to  high  thinking  and  impartial  search  for  tho 
unsullied  truth  in  the  interests  of  all  the  people;  this  is  the 
holy  grail  of  the  universities. 

That  they  may  perform  their  work  they  must  be  left  free,  as 
the  pioneer  was  free,  to  explore  new  regions  and  to  report 
what  they  find;  for  like  the  pioneers  they  have  the  ideal  of 
investigation,  they  seek  new  horizons.  They  are  not  tied  to 
past  knowledge;  they  recognize  the  fact  that  the  universe  still 
abounds  in  mystery,  that  science  and  society  have  not  crys 
tallized,  but  are  still  growing  and  need  their  pioneer  trail- 
makers.  New  and  beneficent  discoveries  in  nature,  new  and 
beneficial  discoveries  in  the  processes  and  directions  of  the 
growth  of  society,  substitutes  for  the  vanishing  material  basis 
of  pioneer  democracy  may  be  expected  if  the  university  pio 
neers  are  left  free  to  seek  the  trail. 

In  conclusion,  the  university  has  a  duty  in  adjusting  pioneer 
ideals  to  the  new  requirements  of  American  democracy,  even 
more  important  than  those  which  I  have  named.  The  early 
pioneer  was  an  individualist  and  a  seeker  after  the  undiscov 
ered;  but  he  did  not  understand  the  richness  and  complexity 
of  life  as  a  whole;  he  did  not  fully  realize  his  opportunities 
of  individualism  and  discovery.  He  stood  in  his  somber  for 
est  as  the  traveler  sometimes  stands  in  a  village  on  the  Alps 
when  the  mist  has  shrouded  everything,  and  only  the  squalid 
hut,  the  stony  field,  the  muddy  pathway  are  in  view.  But 
suddenly  a  wind  sweeps  the  fog  away.  Vast  fields  of  radiant 
snow  and  sparkling  ice  lie  before  him;  profound  abysses  open 
at  his  feet;  and  as  he  lifts  his  eyes  the  unimaginable  peak  of 
the  Matterhorn  cleaves  the  thin  air,  far,  far  above.  A  new 
and  unsuspected  world  is  revealed  all  about  him.  Thus  it  is 
the  function  of  the  university  to  reveal  to  the  individual  the 
mystery  and  the  glory  of  life  as  a  whole  —  to  open  all  the 
realms  of  rational  human  enjoyment  and  achievement;  to 


288       TJJE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

preserve  the  consciousness  of  the  past;  to  spread  before  the 
eye  the  beauty  of  the  universe;  and  to  throw  wide  its  portals 
of  duty  and  of  power  to  the  human  soul.  It  must  honor  the 
poet  and  painter,  the  writer  and  the  teacher,  the  scientist  and 
the  inventor,  the  musician  and  the  prophet  of  righteousness  — 
the  men  of  genius  in  all  fields  who  make  life  nobler.  It  must 
call  forth  anew,  and  for  finer  uses,  the  pioneer's  love  of  crea 
tive  individualism  and  provide  for  it  a  spiritual  atmosphere 
friendly  to  the  development  of  personality  in  all  uplifting 
ways.  It  must  check  the  tendency  to  act  in  mediocre  social 
masses  with  undue  emphasis  upon  the  ideals  of  prosperity 
and  politics.  In  short,  it  must  summon  ability  of  all  kinds 
to  joyous  and  earnest  effort  for  the  welfare  and  the  spiritual 
enrichment  of  society.  It  must  awaken  new  tastes  and  ambi 
tions  among  the  people. 

The  light  of  these  university  watch  towers  should  flash  from 
State  to  State  until  American  democracy  itself  is  illuminated 
with  higher  and  broader  ideals  of  what  constitutes  service  to 
the  State  and  to  mankind;  of  what  are  prizes;  of  what  is  wor 
thy  of  praise  and  reward.  So  long  as  success  in  amassing 
great  wealth  for  the  aggrandizement  of  the  individual  is  the 
exclusive  or  the  dominant  standard  of  success,  so  long  as  mate 
rial  prosperity,  regardless  of  the  conditions  of  its  cost,  or  the 
civilization  which  results,  is  the  shibboleth,  American  democ 
racy,  that  faith  in  the  common  man  which  the  pioneer  cher 
ishes,  is  in  danger.  For  the  strongest  will  make  their  way 
unerringly  to  whatever  goal  society  sets  up  as  the  mark  of 
conceded  preeminence.  What  more  effective  agency  is  there 
for  the  cultivation  of  the  seed  wheat  of  ideals  than  the  univer 
sity?  Where  can  we  find  a  more  promising  body  of  sowers 
of  the  grain? 

The  pioneer's  clearing  must  be  broadened  into  a  domain 
where  all  that  is  worthy  of  human  endeavor  may  find  fertile 


PIONEER  IDEALS  289 

soil  on  which  to  grow;  and  America  must  exact  of  the  con 
structive  business  geniuses  who  owe  their  rise  to  the  freedom 
of  pioneer  democracy  supreme  allegiance  and  devotion  to 
the  commonweal.  In  fostering  such  an  outcome  and  in  tem 
pering  the  asperities  of  the  conflicts  that  must  precede  its  ful 
filment,  the  nation  has  no  more  promising  agency  than  the 
State  Universities,  no  more  hopeful  product  than  their  grad 
uates. 


XI 

THE  WEST  AND  AMERICAN  IDEALS  x 

True  to  American  traditions  that  each  succeeding  generation 
ought  to  find  in  the  Republic  a  better  home,  once  in  every  year 
the  colleges  and  universities  summon  the  nation  to  lift  its 
eyes  from  the  routine  of  work,  in  order  to  take  stock  of  the 
country's  purposes  and  achievements,  to  examine  its  past  and 
consider  its  future. 

This  attitude  of  self-examination  is  hardly  characteristic  of 
the  people  as  a  whole.  Particularly  it  is  not  characteristic  of 
the  historic  American.  He  has  been  an  opportunist  rather 
than  a  dealer  in  general  ideas.  Destiny  set  him  in  a  current 
which  bore  him  swiftly  along  through  such  a  wealth  of  oppor 
tunity  that  reflection  and  well-considered  planning  seemed 
wasted  time.  He  knew  not  where  he  was  going,  but  he  was  on 
his  way,  cheerful,  optimistic,  busy  and  buoyant. 

To-day  we  are  reaching  a  changed  condition,  less  apparent 
perhaps,  in  the  newer  regions  than  in  the  old,  but  sufficiently 
obvious  to  extend  the  commencement  frame  of  mind  from  the 
college  to  the  country  as  a  whole.  The  swift  and  inevitable 
current  of  the  upper  reaches  of  the  nation's  history  has  borne 
it  to  the  broader  expanse  and  slower  stretches  which  mark  the 
nearness  of  the  level  sea.  The  vessel,  no  longer  carried  along 
by  the  rushing  waters,  finds  it  necessary  to  determine  its  own 

1  Commencement  Address,  University  of  Washington,  June  17,  1914. 
Reprinted  by  permission  from  The  Washington  Historical  Quarterly, 
October,  1914. 

290 


THE  WEST  AND  AMERICAN  IDEALS  291 

directions  on  this  new  ocean  of  its  future,  to  give  conscious 
consideration  to  its  motive  power  and  to  its  steering  gear. 

It  matters  not  so  much  that  those  who  address  these  college 
men  and  women  upon  life,  give  conflicting  answers  to  the 
questions  of  whence  and  whither:  the  pause  for  remembrance, 
for  reflection  and  for  aspiration  is  wholesome  in  itself. 

Although  the  American  people  are  becoming  more  self- 
conscious,  more  responsive  to  the  appeal  to  act  by  deliberate 
choices,  we  should  be  over-sanguine  if  we  believed  that  even 
in  this  new  day  these  commencement  surveys  were  taken  to 
heart  by  the  general  public,  or  that  they  were  directly  and 
immediately  influential  upon  national  thought  and  action. 

But  even  while  we  check  our  enthusiasm  by  this  realization 
of  the  common  thought,  we  must  take  heart.  The  University's 
peculiar  privilege  and  distinction  lie  in  the  fact  that  it  is  not 
the  passive  instrument  of  the  State  to  voice  its  current  ideas. 
Its  problem  is  not  that  of  expressing  tendencies.  Its  mission 
is  to  create  tendencies  and  to  direct  them.  Its  problem  is  thai 
of  leadership  and  of  ideals.  It  is  called,  of  course,  to  justify 
the  support  which  the  public  gives  it,  by  working  in  close  and 
sympathetic  touch  with  those  it  serves.  More  than  that,  it 
would  lose  important  element  of  strength  if  it  failed  to  recog 
nize  the  fact  that  improvement  and  creative  movement  often 
come  from  the  masses  themselves,  instinctively  moving  toward 
a  better  order.  The  University's  graduates  must  be  fitted  to 
take  their  places  naturally  and  effectually  in  the  common  life 
of  the  time. 

But  the  University  is  called  especially  to  justify  its  exist 
ence  by  giving  to  its  sons  and  daughters  something  which 
they  could  not  well  have  gotten  through  the  ordinary  expe 
riences  of  the  life  outside  its  walls.  It  is  called  to  serve  the 
time  by  independent  research  and  by  original  thought.  If  it 
were  a  mere  recording  instrument  of  conventional  opinion  and 


292       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

average  information,  it  is  hard  to  see  why  the  University 
should  exist  at  all.  To  clasp  hands  with  the  common  life  in 
order  that  it  may  lift  that  life,  to  be  a  radiant  center  enkin 
dling  the  society  in  which  it  has  its  being,  these  are  primary 
duties  of  the  University.  Fortunate  the  State  which  gives  free 
play  to  this  spirit  of  inquiry.  Let  it  "  grubstake  "  its  intellec 
tual  prospectors  and  send  them  forth  where  "  the  trails  run 
out  and  stop."  A  famous  scientist  holds  that  the  universal 
ether  bears  vital  germs  which  impinging  upon  a  dead  world 
would  bring  life  to  it.  So,  at  least  it  is,  in  the  world  of 
thought,  where  energized  ideals  put  in  the  air  and  carried  here 
and  there  by  the  waves  and  currents  of  the  intellectual  atmos 
phere,  fertilize  vast  inert  areas. 

The  University,  therefore,  has  a  double  duty.  On  the  one 
hand  it  must  aid  in  the  improvement  of  the  general  economic 
and  social  environment.  It  must  help  on  in  the  work  of  scien 
tific  discovery  and  of  making  such  conditions  of  existence, 
economic,  political  and  social,  as  will  produce  more  fertile 
and  responsive  soil  for  a  higher  and  better  life.  It  must  stim 
ulate  a  wider  demand  on  the  part  of  the  public  for  right 
leadership.  It  must  extend  its  operations  more  widely  among 
the  people  and  sink  deeper  shafts  through  social  strata  to  find 
new  supplies  of  intellectual  gold  in  popular  levels  yet 
untouched.  And  on  the  other  hand,  it  must  find  and  fit  men 
and  women  for  leadership.  It  must  both  awaken  new  demands 
and  it  must  satisfy  those  demands  by  trained  leaders  with 
new  motives,  with  new  incentives  to  ambition,  with  higher  and 
broader  conception  of  what  constitute  the  prize  in  life,  of 
what  constitutes  success.  The  University  has  to  deal  with 
both  the  soil  and  sifted  seed  in  the  agriculture  of  the  human 
spirit. 

Its  efficiency  is  not  the  efficiency  which  the  business  engineer 
is  fitted  to  appraise.  If  it  is  a  training  ship,  it  is  a  training 


THE  WEST  AND  AMERICAN  IDEALS  293 

ship  bound  on  a  voyage  of  discovery,  seeking  new  horizons. 
The  economy  of  the  University's  consumption  can  only  be 
rightly  measured  by  the  later  times  which  shall  possess  those 
new  realms  of  the  spirit  which  its  voyage  shall  reveal.  If  the 
ships  of  Columbus  had  engaged  in  a  profitable  coastwise  traffic 
between  Palos  and  Cadiz  they  might  have  saved  sail  cloth,  but 
their  keels  would  never  have  grated  on  the  shores  of  a  New 
World. 

The  appeal  of  the  undiscovered  is  strong  in  America.  For 
three  centuries  the  fundamental  process  in  its  history  was 
the  westward  movement,  the  discovery  and  occupation  of  the 
vast  free  spaces  of  the  continent.  We  are  the  first  genera 
tion  of  Americans  who  can  look  back  upon  that  era  as  a  his 
toric  movement  now  coming  to  its  end.  Other  generations 
have  been  so  much  a  part  of  it  that  they  could  hardly  com 
prehend  its  significance.  To  them  it  seemed  inevitable.  The 
free  land  and  the  natural  resources  seemed  practically  inex 
haustible.  Nor  were  they  aware  of  the  fact  that  their  most 
fundamental  traits,  their  institutions,  even  their  ideals  were 
shaped  by  this  interaction  between  the  wilderness  and  them 
selves. 

American  democracy  was  born  of  no  theorist's  dream;  it  was 
not  carried  in  the  Sarah  Constant  to  Virginia,  nor  in  the  May 
flower  to  Plymouth.  It  came  out  of  the  American  forest,  and 
it  gained  new  strength  each  time  it  touched  a  new  frontier. 
Not  the  constitution,  but  free  land  and  an  abundance  of  natural 
resources  open  to  a  fit  people,  made  the  democratic  type  of 
society  in  America  for  three  centuries  while  it  occupied  its 
empire. 

To-day  we  are  looking  with  a  shock  upon  a  changed  world. 
The  national  problem  is  no  longer  how  to  cut  and  burn  away 
the  vast  screen  of  the  dense  and  daunting  forest;  it  is  how 
to  save  and  wisely  use  the  remaining  timber.  It  is  no  longer 


294       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

how  to  get  the  great  spaces  of  fertile  prairie  land  in  humid 
zones  out  of  the  hands  of  the  government  into  the  hands  of 
the  pioneer;  these  lands  have  already  passed  into  private 
possession.  No  longer  is  it  a  question  of  how  to  avoid  or 
cross  the  Great  Plains  and  the  arid  desert.  It  is  a  question 
of  how  to  conquer  those  rejected  lands  by  new  method  of 
farming  and  by  cultivating  new  crops  from  seed  collected 
by  the  government  and  by  scientists  from  the  cold,  dry  steppes 
of  Siberia,  the  burning  sands  of  Egypt,  and  the  remote  in 
terior  of  China.  It  is  a  problem  of  how  to  bring  the  pre 
cious  rills  of  water  on  to  the  alkali  and  sage  brush.  Popula 
tion  is  increasing  faster  than  the  food  supply. 

New  farm  lands  no  longer  increase  decade  after  decade 
in  areas  equal  to  those  of  European  states.  While  the  ratio 
of  increase  of  improved  land  declines,  the  value  of  farm  lands 
rise  and  the  price  of  food  leaps  upward,  reversing  the  old 
ratio  between  the  two.  The  cry  of  scientific  farming  and 
the  conservation  of  natural  resources  replaces  the  cry  of  rapid 
conquest  of  the  wilderness.  We  have  so  far  won  our  national 
home,  wrested  from  it  its  first  rich  treasures,  and  drawn  to 
it  the  unfortunate  of  other  lands,  that  we  are  already  obliged 
to  compare  ourselves  with  settled  states  of  the  Old  World. 
In  place  of  our  attitude  of  contemptuous  indifference  to  the 
legislation  of  such  countries  as  Germany  and  England,  even 
Western  States  like  Wisconsin  send  commissions  to  study  their 
systems  of  taxation,  workingmen's  insurance,  old  age  pensions 
and  a  great  variety  of  other  remedies  for  social  ills. 

If  we  look  about  the  periphery  of  the  nation,  everywhere  we 
see  the  indications  that  our  world  is  changing.  On  the  streets 
of  Northeastern  cities  like  New  York  and  Boston,  the  faces 
which  we  meet  are  to  a  surprising  extent  those  of  Southeast 
ern  Europe.  Puritan  New  England,  which  turned  its  capital 
into  factories  and  mills  and  drew  to  its  shores  an  army  of 


THE  WEST  AND  AMERICAN  IDEALS  295 

cheap  labor,  governed  these  people  for  a  time  by  a  ruling 
class  like  an  upper  stratum  between  which  and  the  lower 
strata  there  was  no  assimilation.  There  was  no  such  evolu 
tion  into  an  assimilated  commonwealth  as  is  seen  in  Middle 
Western  agricultural  States,  where  immigrant  and  old  native 
stock  came  in  together  and  built  up  a  homogeneous  society  on 
the  principle  of  give  and  take.  But  now  the  Northeastern 
coast  finds  its  destiny,  politically  and  economically,  passing1 
away  from  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans.  It  is  the  little 
Jewish  boy,  the  Greek  or  the  Sicilian,  who  takes  the  traveler 
through  historic  streets,  now  the  home  of  these  newer  people 
to  the  Old  North  Church  or  to  Paul  Revere's  house,  or  to  Tea 
Wharf,  and  tells  you  in  his  strange  patois  the  story  of  revolu 
tion  against  oppression. 

Along  the  Southern  Atlantic  and  the  Gulf  coast,  in  spite  of 
the  preservative  influence  of  the  negro,  whose  presence  has 
always  called  out  resistance  to  change  on  the  part  of  the 
whites,  the  forces  of  social  and  industrial  transformation  are 
at  work.  The  old  tidewater  aristocracy  has  surrendered  to 
the  up-country  democrats.  Along  the  line  of  the  Alleghanies 
like  an  advancing  column,  the  forces  of  Northern  capital, 
textile  and  steel  mills,  year  after  year  extend  their  invasion 
into  the  lower  South.  New  Orleans,  once  the  mistress  of  the 
commerce  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  is  awakening  to  new 
dreams  of  world  commerce.  On  the  southern  border,  similar 
invasions  of  American  capital  have  been  entering  Mexico.  At 
the  same  time,  the  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal  has  com 
pleted  the  dream  of  the  ages  of  the  Straits  of  Anian  between 
Atlantic  and  Pacific.  Four  hundred  years  ago,  Balboa  raised 
the  flag  of  Spain  at  the  edge  of  the  Sea  of  the  West  and  we 
are  now  preparing  to  celebrate  both  that  anniversary,  and 
the  piercing  of  the  continent.  New  relations  have  been  created 
between  Spanish  America  and  the  United  States  and  the  world 


296       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

is  watching  the  mediation  of  Argentina,  Brazil  and  Chile 
between  the  contending  forces  of  Mexico  and  the  Union.  Once 
more  alien  national  interests  lie  threatening  at  our  borders, 
but  we  no  longer  appeal  to  the  Monroe  Doctrine  and  send  our 
armies  of  frontiersmen  to  settle  our  concerns  off-hand.  We 
take  council  with  Europeih  nations  and  with  the  sisterhood  of 
South  America,  and  propose  a  remedy  of  social  reorganization 
in  place  of  imperious  will  and  force.  Whether  the  effort  will 
succeed  or  not,  it  is  a  significant  indication  that  an  old  order 
is  passing  away,  when  such  a  solution  is  undertaken  by  a 
President  of  Scotch  Presbyterian  stock,  born  in  the  State  of 
Virginia. 

If  we  turn  to  the  Northern  border,  where  we  are  about  to 
celebrate  a  century  of  peace  with  England,  we  see  in  progress, 
like  a  belated  procession  of  our  own  history  the  spread  of 
pioneers,  the  opening  of  new  wildernesses,  the  building  of  new 
cities,  the  growth  of  a  new  and  mighty  nation.  That  old 
American  advance  of  the  wheat  farmer  from  the  Connecticut 
to  the  Mohawk,  and  the  Genesee,  from  the  Great  Valley  of 
Pennsylvania  to  the  Ohio  Valley  and  the  prairies  of  the  Middle 
West,  is  now  by  its  own  momentum  and  under  the  stimulus 
of  Canadian  homesteads  and  the  high  price  of  wheat,  carried 
across  the  national  border  to  the  once  lone  plains  where 
the  Hudson  Bay  dog  trains  crossed  the  desolate  snows  of 
the  wild  North  Land.  In  the  Pacific  Northwest  the  era  of 
construction  has  not  ended,  but  it  is  so  rapidly  in  progress 
that  we  can  already  see  the  closing  of  the  age  of  the  pioneer. 
Already  Alaska  beckons  on  the  north,  and  pointing  to  her 
wealth  of  natural  resources  asks  the  nation  on  what  new 
terms  the  new  age  will  deal  with  her.  Across  the  Pacific 
looms  Asia,  no  longer  a  remote  vision  and  a  symbol  of  the 
unchanging,  but  borne  as  by  mirage  close  to  our  shores  and 
raising  grave  questions  of  the  common  destiny  of  the  people 


THE  WEST  AND  AMERICAN  IDEALS  297 

of  the  ocean.  The  dreams  of  Benton  and  of  Seward  of  a 
regenerated  Orient,  when  the  long  march  of  westward  civili 
zation  should  complete  its  circle,  seem  almost  to  be  in  process 
of  realization.  The  age  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  begins,  myste 
rious  and  unfathomable  in  its  meaning  for  our  own  future. 

Turning  to  view  the  interior,  we  see  the  same  picture  of 
change.  When  the  Superintendent  of  the  Census  in  1890 
declared  the  frontier  line  no  longer  traceable,  the  beginning 
of  the  rush  into  Oklahoma  had  just  occurred.  Here  where 
the  broken  fragments  of  Indian  nations  from  the  East  had 
been  gathered  and  where  the  wilder  tribes  of  the  Southwest 
were  being  settled,  came  the  rush  of  the  land-hungry  pioneer. 
Almost  at  a  blow  the  old  Indian  territory  passed  away,  popu 
lous  cities  came  into  being  and  it  was  not  long  before  gushing 
oil  wells  made  a  new  era  of  sudden  wealth.  The  farm  lands 
of  the  Middle  West  taken  as  free  homesteads  or  bought  for  a 
mere  pittance,  have  risen  so  in  value  that  the  original  owners 
have  in  an  increasing  degree  either  sold  them  in  order  to 
reinvest  in  the  newer  cheap  lands  of  the  West,  or  have  moved 
into  the  town  and  have  left  the  tillage  to  tenant  farmers.  The 
growth  of  absentee  ownership  of  the  soil  is  producing  a  serious 
problem  in  the  former  centers  of  the  Granger  and  the  Popu 
list.  Along  the  Old  Northwest  the  Great  Lakes  are  becoming 
a  new  Mediterranean  Sea  joining  the  realms  of  wheat  and 
iron  ore,  at  one  end  with  the  coal  and  furnaces  of  the  forks 
of  the  Ohio,  where  the  most  intense  and  wide-reaching  center 
of  industrial  energy  exists.  City  life  like  that  of  the  East, 
manufactures  and  accumulated  capital,  seem  to  be  reproduc 
ing  in  the  center  of  the  Republic  the  tendencies  already  so 
plain  on  the  Atlantic  Coast. 

Across  the  Great  Plains  where  buffalo  and  Indian  held  sway 
successive  industrial  waves  are  passing.  The  old  free  range 
gave  place  to  the  ranch,  the  ranch  to  the  homestead  and  now 


298       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

in  places  in  the  arid  lands  the  homestead  is  replaced  by  the 
ten  or  twenty  acre  irrigated  fruit  farm.  The  age  of  cheap 
land,  cheap  corn  and  wheat,  and  cheap  cattle  has  gone  for 
ever.  The  federal  government  has  undertaken  vast  paternal 
enterprises  of  reclamation  of  the  desert. 

In  the  Rocky  Mountains  where  at  the  time  of  Civil  War, 
the  first  important  rushes  to  gold  and  silver  mines  carried  the 
frontier  backward  on  a  march  toward  the  east,  the  most  amaz 
ing  transformations  have  occurred.  Here,  where  prospectors 
made  new  trails,  and  lived  the  wild  free  life  of  mountain 
men,  here  where  the  human  spirit  seemed  likely  to  attain  the 
largest  measure  of  individual  freedom,  and  where  fortune 
beckoned  to  the  common  man,  have  come  revolutions  wrought 
by  the  demand  for  organized  industry  and  capital.  In  the 
regions  where  the  popular  tribunal  and  the  free  competitive 
life  flourished,  we  have  seen  law  and  order  break  down  in  the 
unmitigated  collision  of  great  aggregations  of  capital,  with 
each  other  and  with  organized  socialistic  labor.  The  Cripple 
Creek  strikes,  the  contests  at  Butte,  the  Goldfield  mobs,  the 
recent  Colorado  fighting,  all  tell  a  similar  story, —  the  solid 
impact  of  contending  forces  in  regions  where  civic  power  and 
loyalty  to  the  State  have  never  fully  developed.  Like  the 
Grand  Canon,  where  in  dazzling  light  the  huge  geologic  his 
tory  is  written  so  large  that  none  may  fail  to  read  it,  so  in 
the  Rocky  Mountains  the  dangers  of  modern  American  indus 
trial  tendencies  have  been  exposed. 

As  we  crossed  the  Cascades  on  our  way  to  Seattle,  one  of 
the  passengers  was  moved  to  explain  his  feeling  on  the  excel 
lence  of  Puget  Sound  in  contrast  with  the  remaining  visible 
Universe.  He  did  it  well  in  spite  of  irreverent  interruptions 
from  those  fellow  travelers  who  were  unconverted  children 
of  the  East,  and  at  last  he  broke  forth  in  passionate  challenge, 
"Why  should  I  not  love  Seattle!  It  took  me  from  the  slums 


THE  WEST  AND  AMERICAN  IDEALS  299 

of  the  Atlantic  Coast,  a  poor  Swedish  boy  with  hardly  fifteen 
dollars  in  my  pocket.  It  gave  me  a  home  by  the  beautiful 
sea;  it  spread  before  my  eyes  a  vision  of  snow-capped  peaks 
and  smiling  fields;  it  brought  abundance  and  a  new  life  to  me 
and  my  children  and  I  love  it,  I  love  it!  If  I  were  a  multi 
millionaire  I  would  charter  freight  cars  and  carry  away  from 
the  crowded  tenements  and  noisome  alleys  of  the  eastern  cities 
and  the  Old  World  the  toiling  masses,  and  let  them  loose  in 
our  vast  forests  and  ore-laden  mountains  to  learn  what  life 
really  is!  "  And  my  heart  was  stirred  by  his  words  and  by 
the  whirling  spaces  of  woods  and  peaks  through  which  we 
passed. 

But  as  I  looked  and  listened  to  this  passionate  outcry,  I 
remembered  the  words  of  Talleyrand,  the  exiled  Bishop  of 
Autun,  in  Washington's  administration.  Looking  down  from 
an  eminence  not  far  from  Philadelphia  upon  a  wilderness 
which  is  now  in  the  heart  of  that  huge  industrial  society 
where  population  presses  on  the  means  of  life,  even  the  cold 
blooded  and  cynical  Talleyrand,  gazing  on  those  unpeopled 
hills  and  forests,  kindled  with  the  vision  of  coming  clearings, 
the  smiling  farms  and  grazing  herds  that  were  to  be,  the 
populous  towns  that  should  be  built,  the  newer  and  finer  social 
organization  that  should  there  arise.  And  then  I  remembered 
the  hall  in  Harvard's  museum  of  social  ethics  through  which 
I  pass  to  my  lecture  room  when  I  speak  on  the  history  of  the 
Westward  movement.  That  hall  is  covered  with  an  exhibit 
of  the  work  in  Pittsburgh  steel  mills,  and  of  the  congested 
tenements.  Its  charts  and  diagrams  tell  of  the  long  hours  of 
work,  the  death  rate,  the  relation  of  typhoid  to  the  slums,  the 
gathering  of  the  poor  of  all  Southeastern  Europe  to  make  a 
civilization  at  that  center  of  American  industrial  energy  and 
vast  capital  that  is  a  social  tragedy.  As  I  enter  my  lecture 
room  through  that  hall,  I  speak  of  the  young  Washington 


300       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

leading  his  Virginia  frontiersmen  to  the  magnificent  forest  at 
the  forks  of  the  Ohio.  Where  Braddock  and  his  men,  "  carv 
ing  a  cross  on  the  wilderness  rim,"  were  struck  by  the  painted 
savages  in  the  primeval  woods,  huge  furnaces  belch  forth 
perpetual  fires  and  Huns  and  Bulgars,  Poles  and  Sicilians 
struggle  for  a  chance  to  earn  their  daily  bread,  and  live  a 
brutal  and  degraded  life.  Irresistibly  there  rushed  across  my 
mind  the  memorable  words  of  Huxley: 

"Even  the  best  of  modern  civilization  appears 
to  me  to  exhibit  a  condition  of  mankind  which 
neither  embodies  any  worthy  ideal  nor  even  pos 
sesses  the  merit  of  stability.  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
express  the  opinion  that,  if  there  is  no  hope  of  a 
large  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  human  family;  if  it  is  true  that  the 
increase  of  knowledge,  the  winning  of  a  greater 
dominion  over  Nature,  which  is  its  consequence, 
and  the  wealth  which  follows  upon  that  dominion, 
are  to  make  no  difference  in  the  extent  and  the 
intensity  of  Want,  with  its  concomitant  physical 
and  moral  degradation,  among  the  masses  of  the 
people,  I  should  hail  the  advent  of  some  kindly 
comet,  which  would  sweep  the  whole  affair  away, 
as  a  desirable  consummation." 

But  if  there  is  disillusion  and  shock  and  apprehension  as 
we  come  to  realize  these  changes,  to  strong  men  and  women 
there  is  challenge  and  inspiration  in  them  too.  In  place  of 
old  frontiers  of  wilderness,  there  are  new  frontiers  of  unwon 
fields  of  science,  fruitful  for  the  needs  of  the  race;  there  are 
frontiers  of  better  social  domains  yet  unexplored.  Let  us 
hold  to  our  attitude  of  faith  and  courage,  and  creative  zeal. 


THE  WEST  AND  AMERICAN  IDEALS  301 

Let  us  dream  as  our  fathers  dreamt  and  let  us  make  our  dreams 
come  true. 

"  Daughters  of  Time,  the  hypocritic  days, 

Muffled  and  dumb  like  barefoot  dervishes, 

And  marching  single  in  an  endless  file, 

Bear  diadems  and  fagots  in  their  hands. 

To  each  they  offer  gifts  after  his  will 

Bread,  kingdoms,  stars,  and  sky  that  hold  them  all. 

I,  in  my  pleached  garden  watched  the  pomp, 

Forgot  my  morning  wishes,  hastily 

Took  a  few  herbs  and  apples  and  the  day 

Turned  and  departed  silent.    I,  too  late, 

Under  her  solemn  fillet,  saw  the  scorn!  " 

What  were  America's  "  morning  wishes  "?  From  the  begin 
ning  of  that  long  westward  march  of  the  American  people 
America  has  never  been  the  home  of  mere  contented  material 
ism.  It  has  continuously  sought  new  ways  and  dreamed  of  a 
perfected  social  type. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  when  men  dealt  with  the  New  World 
which  Columbus  found,  the  ideal  of  discovery  was  dominant. 
Here  was  placed  within  the  reach  of  men  whose  ideas  had 
been  bounded  by  the  Atlantic,  new  realms  to  be  explored. 
America  became  the  land  of  European  dreams,  its  Fortunate 
Islands  were  made  real,  where,  in  the  imagination  of  old 
Europe,  peace  and  happiness,  as  well  as  riches  and  eternal 
youth,  were  to  be  found.  To  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  and  his 
friends  of  the  London  Company,  Virginia  offered  an  oppor 
tunity  to  erect  the  Republic  for  which  they  had  longed  in  vain 
in  England.  To  the  Puritans,  New  England  was  the  new  land 
of  freedom,  wherein  they  might  establish  the  institutions  of 
God,  according  to  their  own  faith.  As  the  vision  died  away 
in  Virginia  toward  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  it 
was  taken  up  anew  by  the  fiery  Bacon  with  his  revolution 
to  establish  a  real  democracy  in  place  of  the  rule  of  the 


302       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

planter  aristocracy,  that  formed  along  the  coast.  Hardly  had 
he  been  overthrown  when  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  demo 
cratic  ideal  was  rejuvenated  by  the  strong  frontiersmen,  who 
pressed  beyond  the  New  England  Coast  into  the  Berkshires 
and  up  the  valleys  of  the  Green  Mountains  of  Vermont,  and 
by  the  Scotch-Irish  and  German  pioneers  who  followed  the 
Great  Valley  from  Pennsylvania  into  the  Upland  South.  In 
both  the  Yankee  frontiersmen  and  the  Scotch-Irish  Presby 
terians  of  the  South,  the  Calvinistic  conception  of  the  impor 
tance  of  the  individual,  bound  by  free  covenant  to  his  fellow 
men  and  to  God,  was  a  compelling  influence,  and  all  their 
wilderness  experience  combined  to  emphasize  the  ideals  of 
opening  new  ways,  of  giving  freer  play  to  the  individual,  and 
of  constructing  democratic  society. 

When  the  backwoodsmen  crossed  the  Alleghanies  they  put 
between  themselves  and  the  Atlantic  Coast  a  barrier  which 
seemed  to  separate  them  from  a  region  already  too  much  like 
the  Europe  they  had  left,  and  as  they  followed  the  courses  of 
the  rivers  that  flowed  to  the  Mississippi,  they  called  them 
selves  "  Men  of  the  Western  Waters,"  and  their  new  home  in 
the  Mississippi  Valley  was  the  "  Western  World."  Here,  by 
the  thirties,  Jacksonian  democracy  flourished,  strong  in  the 
faith  of  the  intrinsic  excellence  of  the  common  man,  in  his 
right  to  make  his  own  place  in  the  world,  and  in  his  capacity 
to  share  in  government.  But  while  Jacksonian  democracy 
demanded  these  rights,  it  was  also  loyal  to  leadership  as  the 
very  name  implies.  It  was  ready  to  follow  to  the  uttermost 
the  man  in  whom  it  placed  its  trust,  whether  the  hero  were 
frontier  fighter  or  president,  and  it  even  rebuked  and  limited 
its  own  legislative  representatives  and  recalled  its  senators 
when  they  ran  counter  to  their  chosen  executive.  Jacksonian 
democracy  was  essentially  rural.  It  was  based  on  the  good 
fellowship  and  genuine  social  feeling  of  the  frontier,  in  which 


THE  WEST  AND  AMERICAN  IDEALS  303 

classes  and  inequalities  of  fortune  played  little  part.  But  it 
did  not  demand  equality  of  condition,  for  there  was  abundance 
of  natural  resources  and  the  belief  that  the  self-made  man 
had  a  right  to  his  success  in  the  free  competition  which 
western  life  afforded,  was  as  prominent  in  their  thought  as  was 
the  love  of  democracy.  On  the  other  hand,  they  viewed  gov 
ernmental  restraints  with  suspicion  as  a  limitation  on  their 
right  to  work  out  their  own  individuality. 

For  the  banking  institutions  and  capitalists  of  the  East  they 
had  an  instinctive  antipathy.  Already  they  feared  that  the 
*'  money  power  "  as  Jackson  called  it,  was  planning  to  make 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  of  the  common  people. 

In  this  view  they  found  allies  among  the  labor  leaders  of 
the  East,  who  in  the  same  period  began  their  fight  for  better 
conditions  of  the  wage  earner.  These  Locofocos  were  the 
first  Americans  td  demand  fundamental  social  changes  for 
the  benefit  of  the  workers  in  the  cities.  Like  the  Western 
pioneers,  they  protested  against  monopolies  and  special  priv 
ilege.  But  they  also  had  a  constructive  policy,  whereby  society 
was  to  be  kept  democratic  by  free  gifts  of  the  public  land,  so 
that  surplus  labor  might  not  bid  against  itself,  but  might  find 
an  outlet  in  the  West.  Thus  to  both  the  labor  theorist  and 
the  practical  pioneer,  the  existence  of  what  seemed  inexhaust 
ible  cheap  land  and  unpossessed  resources  was  the  condition 
of  democracy.  In  these  years  of  the  thirties  and  forties,  West 
ern  democracy  took  on  its  distinctive  form.  Travelers  like 
De  Tocqueville  and  Harriet  Pvlartineau,  came  to  study  and  to 
report  it  enthusiastically  to  Europe. 

Side  by  side  with  this  westward  marching  army  of  individ 
ualistic  liberty-loving  democratic  backwoodsmen,  went  a  more 
northern  stream  of  pioneers,  who  cherished  similar  ideas,  but 
added  to  them  the  desire  to  create  new  industrial  centers,  to 
build  up  factories,  to  build  railroads,  and  to  develop  the 


304       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

country  by  founding  cities  and  extending  prosperity.  They 
were  ready  to  call  upon  legislatures  to  aid  in  this,  by  sub 
scriptions  to  stock,  grants  of  franchises,  promotion  of  bank 
ing  and  internal  improvements.  These  were  the  Whig  follow 
ers  of  that  other  Western  leader,  Henry  Clay,  and  their  early 
strength  lay  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  and  particularly  among  the 
well-to-do.  In  the  South  their  strength  was  found  among  the 
aristocracy  of  the  Cotton  Kingdom. 

Both  of  these  Western  groups,  Whigs  and  Democrats  alike, 
had  one  common  ideal:  the  desire  to  leave  their  children  a 
better  heritage  than  they  themselves  had  received,  and  both 
were  fired  with  devotion  to  the  ideal  of  creating  in  this  New 
World  a  home  more  worthy  of  mankind.  Both  were  ready  to 
break  with  the  past,  to  boldly  strike  out  new  lines  of  social 
endeavor,  and  both  believed  in  American  expansion. 

Before  these  tendencies  had  worked  themselves  out,  three 
new  forces  entered.  In  the  sudden  extension  of  our  boundaries 
to  the  Pacific  Coast,  which  took  place  in  the  forties,  the  nation 
won  so  vast  a  domain  that  its  resources  seemed  illimitable 
and  its  society  seemed  able  to  throw  off  all  its  maladies  by  the 
very  presence  of  these  vast  new  spaces.  At  the  same  period 
the  great  activity  of  railroad  building  to  the  Mississippi  Val 
ley  occurred,  making  these  lands  available  and  diverting  atten 
tion  to  the  task  of  economic  construction.  The  third  influence 
was  the  slavery  question  which,  becoming  acute,  shaped  the 
American  ideals  and  public  discussion  for  nearly  a  genera 
tion.  Viewed  from  one  angle,  this  struggle  involved  the  great 
question  of  national  unity.  From  another  it  involved  the  ques 
tion  of  the  relations  of  labor  and  capital,  democracy  and 
aristocracy.  It  was  not  without  significance  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  became  the  very  type  of  American  pioneer  democracy, 
the  first  adequate  and  elemental  demonstration  to  the  world 


THE  WEST  AND  AMERICAN  IDEALS  305 

that  that  democracy  could  produce  a  man  who  belonged  to 
the  ages. 

After  the  war,  new  national  energies  were  set  loose,  and  new 
construction  and  development  engaged  the  attention  of  the 
Westerners  as  they  occupied  prairies  and  Great  Plains  and 
mountains.  Democracy  and  capitalistic  development  did  not 
seem  antagonistic. 

With  the  passing  of  the  frontier,  Western  social  and  political 
ideals  took  new  form.  Capital  began  to  consolidate  in  even 
greater  masses,  and  increasingly  attempted  to  reduce  to  sys 
tem  and  control  the  processes  of  industrial  development.  La 
bor  with  equal  step  organized  its  forces  to  destroy  the  old  com 
petitive  system.  It  is  not  strange  that  the  Western  pioneers 
took  alarm  for  their  ideals  of  democracy  as  the  outcome  of 
the  free  struggle  for  the  national  resources  became  apparent. 
They  espoused  the  cause  of  governmental  activity. 

It  was  a  new  gospel,  for  the  Western  radical  became  con 
vinced  that  he  must  sacrifice  his  ideal  of  individualism  and 
free  competition  in  order  to  maintain  his  ideal  of  democracy. 
Under  this  conviction  the  Populist  revised  the  pioneer  con 
ception  of  government.  He  saw  in  government  no  longer 
something  outside  of  him,  but  the  people  themselves  shaping 
their  own  affairs.  He  demanded  therefore  an  extension  of 
the  powers  of  governments  in  the  interest  of  his  historic  ideal 
of  democratic  society.  He  demanded  not  only  free  silver,  but 
the  ownership  of  the  agencies  of  communication  and  trans 
portation,  the  income  tax,  the  postal  savings  bank,  the  pro 
vision  of  means  of  credit  for  agriculture,  the  construction  of 
more  effective  devices  to  express  the  will  of  the  people,  primary 
nominations,  direct  elections,  initiative,  referendum  and  recall. 
In  a  word,  capital,  labor,  and  the  Western  pioneer,  all  deserted 
the  ideal  of  competitive  individualism  in  order  to  organize 


306       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

their  interests  in  more  effective  combinations.  The  disappear 
ance  of  the  frontier,  the  closing  of  the  era  which  was  marked 
by  the  influence  of  the  West  as  a  form  of  society,  brings  with 
it  new  problems  of  social  adjustment,  new  demands  for  con 
sidering  our  past  ideals  and  our  present  needs. 

Let  us  recall  the  conditions  of  the  foreign  relations  along 
our  borders,  the  dangers  that  wait  us  if  we  fail  to  unite  in 
the  solution  of  our  domestic  problems.  Let  us  recall  those 
internal  evidences  of  the  destruction  of  our  old  social  order. 
If  we  take  to  heart  this  warning,  we  shall  do  well  also  to 
recount  our  historic  ideals,  to  take  stock  of  those  purposes, 
and  fundamental  assumptions  that  have  gone  to  make  the 
American  spirit  and  the  meaning  of  America  in  world  his 
tory. 

First  of  all,  there  was  the  ideal  of  discovery,  the  cour 
ageous  determination  *to  break  new  paths,  indifference  to  the 
dogma  that  because  an  institution  or  a  condition  exists,  it  must 
remain.  All  American  experience  has  gone  to  the  making  of 
the  spirit  of  innovation;  it  is  in  the  blood  and  will  not  be 
repressed. 

Then,  there  was  the  ideal  of  democracy,  the  ideal  of  a  free 
self-directing  people,  responsive  to  leadership  in  the  forming 
of  programs  and  their  execution,  but  insistent  that  the  pro 
cedure  should  be  that  of  free  choice,  not  of  compulsion. 

But  there  was  also  the  ideal  of  individualism.  This  demo 
cratic  society  was  not  a  disciplined  army,  where  all  must  keep 
step  and  where  the  collective  interests  destroyed  individual 
will  and  work.  Rather  it  was  a  mobile  mass  of  freely  circu 
lating  atoms,  each  seeking  its  own  place  and  finding  play  for 
its  own  powers  and  for  its  own  original  initiative.  We  cannot 
lay  too  much  stress  upon  this  point,  for  it  was  at  the  very  heart 
of  the  whole  American  movement.  The  world  was  to  be  made 
a  better  world  by  the  example  of  a  democracy  in  which  there 


THE  WEST  AND  AMERICAN  IDEALS  307 

was  freedom  of  the  individual,  in  which  there  was  the  vitality 
and  mobility  productive  of  originality  and  variety. 

Bearing  in  mind  the  far-reaching  influence  of  the  disappear 
ance  of  unlimited  resources  open  to  all  men  for  the  taking, 
and  considering  the  recoil  of  the  common  man  when  he  saw 
the  outcome  of  the  competitive  struggle  for  these  resources  as 
the  supply  came  to  its  end  over  most  of  the  nation,  we  can 
understand  the  reaction  against  individualism  and  in  favor 
of  drastic  assertion  of  the  powers  of  government.  Legisla 
tion  is  taking  the  place  of  the  free  lands  as  the  means  of  pre 
serving  the  ideal  of  democracy.  But  at  the  same  time  it  is 
endangering  the  other  pioneer  ideal  of  creative  and  competi 
tive  individualism.  Both  were  essential  and  constituted  what 
was  best  in  America's  contribution  to  history  and  to  progress. 
Both  must  be  preserved  if  the  nation  would  be  true  to  its  past, 
and  would  fulfil  its  highest  destiny.  It  would  be  a  grave  mis 
fortune  if  these  people  so  rich  in  experience,  in  self-confidence 
and  aspiration,  in  creative  genius,  should  turn  to  some  Old 
World  discipline  of  socialism  or  plutocracy,  or  despotic  rule, 
whether  by  class  or  by  dictator.  Nor  shall  we  be  driven  to 
these  alternatives.  Our  ancient  hopes,  our  courageous  faith, 
our  underlying  good  humor  and  love  of  fair  play  will  triumph 
in  the  end.  There  will  be  give  and  take  in  all  directions. 
There  will  be  disinterested  leadership,  under  loyalty  to  the 
best  American  ideals.  Nowhere  is  this  leadership  more  likely 
to  arise  than  among  the  men  trained  in  the  Universities,  aware 
of  the  promise  of  the  past  and  the  possibilities  of  the  future. 
The  times  call  for  new  ambitions  and  new  motives. 

In  a   most  suggestive   essay   on  the  Problems  of  Modern 
Democracy,  Mr.  Godkin  has  said: 

M.  de  Tocqueville  and  all  his  followers  take  it 
for  granted  that  the  great  incentive  to  excellence, 


308       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

in  all  countries  in  which  excellence  is  found,  is 
the  patronage  and  encouragement  of  an  aristoc 
racy;  that  democracy  is  generally  content  with 
mediocrity.  But  where  is  the  proof  of  this?  The 
incentive  to  exertion  which  is  widest,  most  con 
stant,  and  most  powerful  in  its  operations  in  all 
civilized  countries,  is  the  desire  of  distinction; 
and  this  may  be  composed  either  of  love  of  fame  or 
love  of  wealth  or  of  both.  In  literary  and  artistic 
and  scientific  pursuits,  sometimes  the  strongest 
influence  is  exerted  by  a  love  of  the  subject.  But 
it  may  safely  be  said  that  no  man  has  ever  labored 
in  any  of  the  higher  colleges  to  whom  the  applause 
and  appreciation  of  his  fellows  was  not  one  of  the 
sweetest  rewards  of  his  exertions. 

What  is  there  we  would  ask,  in  the  nature  of 
democratic  institutions,  that  should  render  this 
great  spring  of  action  powerless,  that  should 
deprive  glory  of  all  radiance,  and  put  ambition  to 
sleep?  Is  it  not  notorious,  on  the  contrary,  that 
one  of  the  most  marked  peculiarities  of  democratic 
society,  or  of  a  society  drifting  toward  democracy, 
is  the  fire  of  competition  which  rages  in  it,  the  fe 
vered  anxiety  which  possesses  all  its  members  to 
rise  above  the  dead  level  to  which  the  law  is  ever 
seeking  to  confine  them,  and  by  some  brilliant 
stroke  become  something  higher  and  more  remark 
able  than  their  fellows?  The  secret  of  that  great 
restlessness  which  is  one  of  the  most  disagreeable 
accompaniments  of  life  in  democratic  countries, 
is  in  fact  due  to  the  eagerness  of  everybody  to 
grasp  the  prizes  of  which  in  aristocratic  countries, 
only  the  few  have  much  chance.  And  in  no  other 


309 

society  is  success  more  worshiped,  is  distinction 
of  any  kind  more  widely  flattered  and  caressed. 

In  democratic  societies,  in  fact,  excellence  is  the 
first  title  to  distinction;  in  aristocratic  ones  there 
are  two  or  three  others  which  are  far  stronger  and 
which  must  be  stronger  or  aristocracy  could  not 
exist.  The  moment  you  acknowledge  that  the  high 
est  social  position  ought  to  be  the  reward  of  the 
man  who  has  the  most  talent,  you  make  aristocratic 
institutions  impossible. 

All  that  was  buoyant  and  creative  in  American  life  would 
be  lost  if  we  gave  up  the  respect  for  distinct  personality,  and 
variety  in  genius,  and  came  to  the  dead  level  of  common 
standards.  To  be  "  socialized  into  an  average "  and  placed 
"  under  the  tutelage  of  the  mass  of  us,"  as  a  recent  writer 
has  put  it,  would  be  an  irreparable  loss.  Nor  is  it  necessary 
in  a  democracy,  as  these  words  of  Godkin  well  disclose.  What 
is  needed  is  the  multiplication  of  motives  for  ambition  and 
the  opening  of  new  lines  of  achievement  for  the  strongest. 
As  we  turn  from  the  task  of  the  first  rough  conquest  of  the 
continent  there  lies  before  us  a  whole  wealth  of  unexploited 
resources  in  the  realm  of  the  spirit.  Arts  and  letters,  science 
and  better  social  creation,  loyalty  and  political  service  to  the 
commonweal, —  these  and  a  thousand  other  directions  of  activ 
ity  are  open  to  the  men,  who  formerly  under  the  incentive  of 
attaining  distinction  by  amassing  extraordinary  wealth,  saw 
success  only  in  material  display.  Newer  and  finer  careers 
will  open  to  the  ambitious  when  once  public  opinion  shall 
award  the  laurels  to  those  who  rise  above  their  fellows  in 
these  new  fields  of  labor.  It  has  not  been  the  gold,  but  the 
getting  of  the  gold,  that  has  caught  the  imaginations  of  our 
captains  of  industry.  Their  real  enjoyment  lay  not  in  the 


310       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

luxuries  which  wealth  brought,  but  in  the  work  of  construction 
and  in  the  place  which  society  awarded  them.  A  new  era 
will  come  if  schools  and  universities  can  only  widen  the 
intellectual  horizon  of  the  people,  help  to  lay  the  foundations 
of  a  better  industrial  life,  show  them  new  goals  for  endeavor, 
inspire  them  with  more  varied  and  higher  ideals. 

The  Western  spirit  must  be  invoked  for  new  and  nobler 
achievements.  Of  that  matured  Western  spirit,  Tennyson's 
Ulysses  is  a  symbol. 

"...  I  am  become  a  name 

For  always  roaming  with  an  hungry  heart, 

Much  have  I  seen  and  known  .  .  . 

I  am  a  part  of  all  that  I  have  met; 

Yet  all  experience  is  an  arch,  where  thro' 

Gleams  that  untravelled  world,  whose  margin  fades 

Forever  and  forever  when  I  move. 

How  dull  it  is  to  pause,  to  make  an  end. 

To  rust  unburnished,  not  to  shine  in  use! 

*• 

And  this  gray  spirit  yearning  in  desire 

To  follow  knowledge  like  a  shining  star 

Beyond  the  utmost  bound  of  human  thought. 

.  .  .  Come  my  friends, 

Tis  not  too  late  to  seek  a  newer  world. 

Push  off,  and  sitting  well  in  order  smite 

The  sounding  furrows;  for  my  purpose  holds 

To  sail  beyond  the  sunset,  and  the  baths 

Of  all  the  Western  stars  until  I  die 

..........$ 

To  strive,  to  seek,  to  find  and  not  to  yield." 


XII 

SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY  1 

The  transformations  through  which  the  United  States  is 
passing  in  our  own  day  are  so  profound,  so  far-reaching,  that 
it  is  hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  we  are  witnessing  the 
birth  of  a  new  nation  in  America.  The  revolution  in  the 
social  and  economic  structure  of  this  country  during  the  past 
two  decades  is  comparable  to  what  occurred  when  independ 
ence  was  declared  and  the  constitution  was  formed,  or  to  the 
changes  wrought  by  the  era  which  began  half  a  century  ago, 
the  era  of  Civil  War  and  Reconstruction. 

These  changes  have  been  long  in  preparation  and  are,  in 
part,  the  result  of  world-wide  forces  of  reorganization  inci 
dent  to  the  age  of  steam  production  and  large-scale  industry, 
and,  in  part,  the  result  of  the  closing  of  the  period  of  the 
colonization  of  the  West.  They  have  been  prophesied,  and 
the  course  of  the  movement  partly  described  by  students  of 
American  development;  but  after  all,  it  is  with  a  shock  that 
the  people  of  the  United  States  are  coming  to  realize  that  the 
fundamental  forces  which  have  shaped  their  society  up  to  the 
present  are  disappearing.  Twenty  years  ago,  as  I  have  before 
had  occasion  to  point  out,  the  Superintendent  of  the  Census 
declared  that  the  frontier  line,  which  its  maps  had  depicted 
for  decade  after  decade  of  the  westward  march  of  the  nation, 

1  Annual  address  as  the  president  of  the  American  Historical  Associa 
tion,  delivered  at  Indianapolis,  December  28t_J1910.  Reprinted  by  per 
mission  from  The  American  Historical  Review,  January,  1911. 

311 


could  no  longer  be  described.  To-day  we  must  add  that  the 
age  of  free  competition  of  individuals  for  the  unpossessed 
resources  of  the  nation  is  nearing  its  end.  It  is  taking  less 
than  a  generation  to  write  the  chapter  which  began  with  the 
disappearance  of  the  line  of  the  frontier  —  the  last  chapter  in 
the  history  of  the  colonization  of  the  United  States,  the  con 
clusion  to  the  annals  of  its  pioneer  democracy. 

It  is  a  wonderful  chapter,  this  final  rush  of  American  energy 
upon  the  remaining  wilderness.  Even  the  bare  statistics 
become  eloquent  of  a  new  era.  They  no  longer  derive  their 
significance  from  the  exhibit  of  vast  proportions  of  the  public 
domain  transferred  to  agriculture,  of  wildernesses  equal  to 
European  nations  changed  decade  after  decade  into  the  farm 
area  of  the  United  States.  It  is  true  there  was  added  to  the 
farms  of  the  nation  between  1870  and  1880  a  territory  equal 
to  that  of  France,  and  between  1880  and  1900  a  territory  equal 
to  the  European  area  of  France,  Germany,  England,  and  Wales 
combined.  The  records  of  1910  are  not  yet  available,  but 
whatever  they  reveal  they  will  not  be  so  full  of  meaning  as 
the  figures  which  tell  of  upleaping  wealth  and  organization  and 
concentration  of  industrial  power  in  the  East  in  the  last  decade. 
As  the  final  provinces  of  the  Western  empire  have  been  sub 
dued  to  the  purposes  of  civilization  and  have  yielded  their 
spoils,  as  the  spheres  of  operation  of  the  great  industrial  cor 
porations  have  extended,  with  the  extension  of  American  settle 
ment,  production  and  wealth  have  increased  beyond  all  prece 
dent. 

The  total  deposits  in  all  national  banks  have  more  than 
trebled  in  the  present  decade;  the  money  in  circulation  has 
doubled  since  1890.  The  flood  of  gold  makes  it  difficult  to 
gage  the  full  meaning  of  the  incredible  increase  in  values, 
for  in  the  decade  ending  with  1909  over  41,600,000  ounces  of 
gold  were  mined  in  the  United  States  alone.  Over  four  mil- 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY       313 

lion  ounces  have  been  produced  every  year  since  1905,  whereas 
between  1880  and  1894  no  year  showed  a  production  of  two 
million  ounces.  As  a  result  of  this  swelling  stream  of  gold 
and  instruments  of  credit,  aided  by  a  variety  of  other  causes, 
prices  have  risen  until  their  height  has  become  one  of  the  most 
marked  features  and  influential  factors  in  American  life,  pro 
ducing  social  readjustments  and  contributing  effectively  to 
party  revolutions. 

But  if  we  avoid  those  statistics  which  require  analysis 
because  of  the  changing  standard  of  value,  we  still  find  that 
the  decade  occupies  an  exceptional  place  in  American  history. 
More  coal  was  mined  in  the  United  States  in  the  ten  years 
after  1897  than  in  all  the  life  of  the  nation  before  that  time.2 
Fifty  years  ago  we  mined  less  than  fifteen  million  long  tons 
of  coal.  In  1907  we  mined  nearly  429,000,000.  At  the  pres 
ent  rate  it  is  estimated  that  the  supply  of  coal  would  be 
exhausted  at  a  date  no  farther  in  the  future  than  the  formation 
of  the  constitution  is  in  the  past.  Iron  and  coal  are  the 
measures  of  industrial  power.  The  nation  has  produced  three 
times  as  much  iron  ore  in  the  past  two  decades  as  in  all  its 
previous  history;  the  production  of  the  past  ten  years  was 
more  than  double  that  of  the  prior  decade.  Pig-iron  pro 
duction  is  admitted  to  be  an  excellent  barometer  of  manufac 
ture  and  of  transportation.  Never  until  1898  had  this  reached 
an  annual  total  of  ten  million  long  tons.  But  in  the  five  years 
beginning  with  1904  it  averaged  over  twice  that.  By  1907 
the  United  States  had  surpassed  Great  Britain,  Germany,  and 
France  combined  in  the  production  of  pig-iron  and  steel 
together,  and  in  the  same  decade  a  single  great  corporation 
has  established  its  domination  over  the  iron  mines  and  steel 
manufacture  of  the  United  States.  It  is  more  than  a  mere 
accident  that  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  with  its 
2  Van  Hise,  "  Conservation  of  Natural  Resources,"  pp.  23,  24. 


314       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

stocks  and  bonds  aggregating  $1,400,000,000  was  organized 
at  the  beginning  of  the  present  decade.  The  former  wilder 
ness  about  Lake  Superior  has,  principally  in  the  past  two  dec 
ades,  established  its  position  as  overwhelmingly  the  preponder 
ant  source  of  iron  ore,  present  and  prospective,  in  the  United 
States  —  a  treasury  from  which  Pittsburgh  has  drawn  wealth 
and  extended  its  unparalleled  industrial  empire  in  these  years. 
The  tremendous  energies  thus  liberated  at  this  center  of  indus 
trial  power  in  the  United  States  revolutionized  methods  of 
manufacture  in  general,  and  in  many  indirect  ways  profoundly 
influenced  the  life  of  the  nation. 

Railroad  statistics  also  exhibit  unprecedented  development, 
the  formation  of  a  new  industrial  society.  The  number  of 
passengers  carried  one  mile  more  than  doubled  between  1890 
and  1908;  freight  carried  one  mile  has  nearly  trebled  in  the 
same  period  and  has  doubled  in  the  past  decade.  Agricultural 
products  tell  a  different  story.  The  corn  crop  has  only  risen 
from  about  two  billion  bushels  in  1891  to  two  and  seven-tenths 
billions  in  1909;  wheat  from  six  hundred  and  eleven  million 
bushels  in  1891  to  only  seven  hundred  and  thirty-seven  million 
in  1909;  and  cotton  from  about  nine  million  bales  in  1891  to 
ten  and  three-tenths  million  bales  in  1909.  Population  has 
increased  in  the  United  States  proper  from  about  sixty-two 
and  one-half  millions  in  1890  to  seventy-five  and  one-half 
millions  in  1900  and  to  over  ninety  millions  in  1910. 

It  is  clear  from  these  statistics  that  the  ratio  of  the  nation's 
increased  production  of  immediate  wealth  by  the  enormously 
increased  exploitation  of  its  remaining  natural  resources  vastly 
exceeds  the  ratio  of  increase  of  population  and  still  more  strik 
ingly  exceeds  the  ratio  of  increase  of  agricultural  products. 
Already  population  is  pressing  upon  the  food  supply  while 
capital  consolidates  in  billion-dollar  organizations.  The 
**  Triumphant  Democracy  "  whose  achievements  the  iron-master 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY       315 

celebrated  has  reached  a  stature  even  more  imposing  than  he 
could  have  foreseen;  but  still  less  did  he  perceive  the  changes 
in  democracy  itself  and  the  conditions  of  its  life  which  have 
accompanied  this  material  growth. 

Having  colonized  the  Far  West,  having  mastered  its  internal 
resources,  the  nation  turned  at  the  conclusion  of  the  nineteenth 
and  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  to  deal  with  the 
Far  East,  to  engage  in  the  world-politics  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
Having  continued  its  historic  expansion  into  the  lands  of  the 
old  Spanish  empire  by  the  successful  outcome  of  the  recent 
war,  the  United  States  became  the  mistress  of  the  Philippines 
at  the  same  time  that  it  came  into  possession  of  the  Hawaiian 
Islands,  and  the  controlling  influence  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
It  provided  early  in  the  present  decade  for  connecting  its 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  coasts  by  the  Isthmian  Canal,  and  became 
an  imperial  republic  with  dependencies  and  protectorates  — 
admittedly  a  new  world-power,  with  a  potential  voice  in  the 
problems  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa. 

This  extension  of  power,  this  undertaking  of  grave  responsi 
bilities  in  new  fields,  this  entry  into  the  sisterhood  of  world- 
states,  was  no  isolated  event.  It  was,  indeed,  in  some  respects 
the  logical  outcome  of  the  nation's  march  to  the  Pacific,  the 
sequence  to  the  era  in  which  it  was  engaged  in  occupying  the 
free  lands  and  exploiting  the  resources  of  the  West.  When 
it  had  achieved  this  position  among  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
the  United  States  found  itself  confronted,  also,  with  the  need 
of  constitutional  readjustment,  arising  from  the  relations  of 
federal  government  and  territorial  acquisitions.  It  was  obliged 
to  reconsider  questions  of  the  rights  of  man  and  traditional 
American  ideals  of  liberty  and  democracy,  in  view  of  the 
task  of  government  of  other  races  politically  inexperienced 
and  undeveloped. 

If  we  turn  to  consider  the  effect  upon  American  society  and 


316       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

domestic  policy  in  these  two  decades  of  transition  we  are 
met  with  palpable  evidences  of  the  invasion  of  the  old  pioneer 
democratic  order.  Obvious  among  them  is  the  effect  of  unprec 
edented  immigration  to  supply  the  mobile  army  of  cheap 
labor  for  the  centers  of  industrial  life.  In  the  past  ten  years, 
beginning  with  1900,  over  eight  million  immigrants  have 
arrived.  The  newcomers  of  the  eight  years  since  1900  would, 
according  to  a  writer  in  1908,  "  repopulate  all  the  five  older 
New  England  States  as  they  stand  to-day;  or,  if  properly  dis 
seminated  over  the  newer  parts  of  the  country  they  would 
serve  to  populate  no  less  than  nineteen  states  of  the  Union  as 
they  stand."  In  1907  "there  were  one  and  one-quarter  mil 
lion  arrivals.  This  number  would  entirely  populate  both  New 
Hampshire  and  Maine,  two  of  our  oldest  States."  "The 
arrivals  of  this  one  year  would  found  a  State  with  more  inhab 
itants  than  any  one  of  twenty-one  of  our  other  existing  com 
monwealths  which  could  be  named."  Not  only  has  the  addi 
tion  to  the  population  from  Europe  been  thus  extraordinary, 
it  has  come  in  increasing  measure  from  southern  and  eastern 
Europe.  For  the  year  1907,  Professor  Ripley,3  whom  I  am 
quoting,  has  redistributed  the  incomers  on  the  basis  of  physical 
type  and  finds  that  one-quarter  of  them  were  of  the  Mediter 
ranean  race,  one-quarter  of  the  Slavic  race,  one-eighth  Jewish, 
and  only  one-sixth  of  the  Alpine,  and  one-sixth  of  the  Teu 
tonic.  In  1882  Germans  had  come  to  the  amount  of  250,000; 
in  1907  they  were  replaced  by  330,000  South  Italians.  Thus 
it  is  evident  that  the  ethnic  elements  of  the  United  States  have 
undergone  startling  changes;  and  instead  of  spreading  over 
the  nation  these  immigrants  have  concentrated  especially  in 
the  cities  and  great  industrial  centers  in  the  past  decade.  The 
composition  of  the  labor  class  and  its  relation  to  wages  and 
to  the  native  American  employer  have  been  deeply  influenced 

8  Atlantic  Monthly,  December,  1908,  vii,  p.  745. 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY       317 

thereby;  the  sympathy  of  the  employers  with  labor  has  been 
unfavorably  affected  by  the  pressure  of  great  numbers  of  immi 
grants  of  alien  nationality  and  of  lower  standards  of  life. 

The  familiar  facts  of  the  massing  of  population  in  the  cities 
and  the  contemporaneous  increase  of  urban  power,  and  of  the 
massing  of  capital  and  production  in  fewer  and  vastly  greater 
industrial  units,  especially  attest  the  revolution.  **  It  is  a 
proposition  too  plain  to  require  elucidation,"  wrote  Richard 
Rush,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  his  report  of  1827,  "  that 
the  creation  of  capital  is  retarded  rather  than  accelerated  by 
the  diffusion  of  a  thin  population  over  a  great  surface  of  soil."  ' 
Thirty  years  before  Rush  wrote  these  words  Albert  Gallatin 
declared  in  Congress  that  "  if  the  cause  of  the  happiness  of 
this  country  were  examined  into,  it  would  be  found  to  arise 
as  much  from  the  great  plenty  of  land  in  proportion  to  the 
inhabitants  which  their  citizens  enjoyed  as  from  the  wisdom 
of  their  political  institutions."  Possibly  both  of  these  Penn 
sylvania  financiers  were  right  under  the  conditions  of  the 
time;  but  it  is  at  least  significant  that  capital  and  labor  entered 
upon  a  new  era  as  the  end  of  the  free  lands  approached.  A 
contemporary  of  Gallatin  in  Congress  had  replied  to  the  argu 
ment  that  cheap  lands  would  depopulate  the  Atlantic  coast 
by  saying  that  if  a  law  were  framed  to  prevent  ready  access  to 
western  lands  it  would  be  tantamount  to  saying  that  there  is 
some  class  which  must  remain  "  and  by  law  be  obliged  to  serve 
the  others  for  such  wages  as  they  pleased  to  give."  The  pas* 
sage  of  the  arable  public  domain  into  private  possession  has 
raised  this  question  in  a  new  form  and  has  brought  forth  new 
answers.  This  is  peculiarly  the  era  when  competitive  individ 
ualism  in  the  midst  of  vast  unappropriated  opportunities 

4  [Although  the  words  of  these  early  land  debates  are  quoted  above 
in  Chapter  VI,  they  are  repeated  because  of  the  light  they  cast  upon 
the  present  problem.] 


318       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

changed  into  the  monopoly  of  the  fundamental  industrial 
processes  by  huge  aggregations  of  capital  as  the  free  lands  dis 
appeared.  All  the  tendencies  of  the  large-scale  production  of 
the  twentieth  century,  all  the  trend  to  the  massing  of  capital 
in  large  combinations,  all  of  the  energies  of  the  age  of  steam, 
found  in  America  exceptional  freedom  of  action  and  were 
offered  regions  of  activity  equal  to  the  states  of  all  Western 
Europe.  Here  they  reached  their  highest  development. 

The  decade  following  1897  is  marked  by  the  work  of  Mr. 
Harriman  and  his  rivals  in  building  up  the  various  railroads 
into  a  few  great  groups,  a  process  that  had  gone  so  far  that 
before  his  death  Mr.  Harriman  was  ambitious  to  concentrate 
them  all  under  his  single  control.  High  finance  under  the 
leadership  of  Mr.  Morgan  steadily  achieved  the  consoli 
dation  of  the  greater  industries  into  trusts  or  combinations 
and  effected  a  community  of  interests  between  them  and  a 
few  dominant  banking  organizations,  with  allied  insurance 
companies  and  trust  companies.  In  New  York  City  have 
been  centered,  as  never  before,  the  banking  reserves  of  the 
nation,  and  here,  by  the  financial  management  of  capital  and 
speculative  promotion,  there  has  grown  up  a  unified  control 
over  the  nation's  industrial  life.  Colossal  private  fortunes 
have  arisen.  No  longer  is  the  per  capita  wealth  of  the  nation 
a  real  index  to  the  prosperity  of  the  average  man.  Labor  on 
the  other  hand  has  shown  an  increasing  self -consciousness,  is 
combining  and  increasing  its  demands.  In  a  word,  the  old 
pioneer  individualism  is  disappearing,  while  the  forces  of 
social  combination  are  manifesting  themselves  as  never  before. 
The  self-made  man  has  become,  in  popular  speech,  the  coal 
baron,  the  steel  king,  the  oil  king,  the  cattle  king,  the  railroad 
magnate,  the  master  of  high  finance,  the  monarch  of  trusts. 
The  world  has  never  before  seen  such  huge  fortunes  exercising 
combined  control  over  the  economic  life  of  a  people,  and  such 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY      319 

luxury  as  has  come  out  of  the  individualistic  pioneer  democ 
racy  of  America  in  the  course  of  competitive  evolution. 

At  the  same  time  the  masters  of  industry,  who  control  inter 
ests  which  represent  billions  of  dollars,  do  not  admit  that  they 
have  broken  with  pioneer  ideals.  They  regard  themselves  as 
pioneers  under  changed  conditions,  carrying  on  the  old  work 
of  developing  the  natural  resources  of  the  nation,  compelled 
by  the  constructive  fever  in  their  veins,  even  in  ill-health  and 
old  age  and  after  the  accumulation  of  wealth  beyond  their 
power  to  enjoy,  to  seek  new  avenues  of  action  and  of  power, 
to  chop  new  clearings,  to  find  new  trails,  to  expand  the  hori 
zon  of  the  nation's  activity,  and  to  extend  the  scope  of  their 
dominion.  "  This  country,"  said  the  late  Mr.  Harriman  in  an 
interview  a  few  years  ago,  "  has  been  developed  by  a  wonder 
ful  people,  flush  with  enthusiasm,  imagination  and  specula 
tive  bent.  .  .  .  They  have  been  magnificent  pioneers.  They 
saw  into  the  future  and  adapted  their  work  to  the  possibilities. 
.  .  .  Stifle  that  enthusiasm,  deaden  that  imagination  and  pro 
hibit  that  speculation  by  restrictive  and  cramping  conservative 
law,  and  you  tend  to  produce  a  moribund  and  conservative 
people  and  country."  This  is  an  appeal  to  the  historic  ideals 
of  Americans  who  viewed  the  republic  as  the  guardian  of 
individual  freedom  to  compete  for  the  control  of  the  natural 
resources  of  the  nation. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  have  the  voice  of  the  insurgent  West, 
recently  given  utterance  in  the  New  Nationalism  of  ex-President 
Roosevelt,  demanding  increase  of  federal  authority  to  curb  the 
special  interests,  the  powerful  industrial  organizations,  and 
the  monopolies,  for  the  sake  of  the  conservation  of  our  natural 
resources  and  the  preservation  of  American  democracy. 

The  past  decade  has  witnessed  an  extraordinary  federal 
activity  in  limiting  individual  and  corporate  freedom  for  the 
benefit  of  society.  To  that  decade  belong  the  conservation 


320       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

congresses  and  the  effective  organization  of  the  Forest  Service, 
and  the  Reclamation  Service.  Taken  together  these  develop 
ments  alone  would  mark  a  new  era,  for  over  three  hundred 
million  acres  are,  as  a  result  of  this  policy,  reserved  from 
entry  and  sale,  an  area  more  than  equal  to  that  of  all  the 
states  which  established  the  constitution,  if  we  exclude  their 
western  claims;  and  these  reserved  lands  are  held  for  a  more 
beneficial  use  of  their  forests,  minerals,  arid  tracts,  and  water 
rights,  by  the  nation  as  a  whole.  Another  example  is  the 
extension  of  the  activity  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture, 
which  seeks  the  remotest  regions  of  the  earth  for  crops  suit 
able  to  the  areas  reclaimed  by  the  government,  maps  and 
analyzes  the  soils,  fosters  the  improvement  of  seeds  and  ani 
mals,  tells  the  farmer  when  and  how  and  what  to  plant,  and 
makes  war  upon  diseases  of  plants  and  animals  and  insect  pests. 
The  recent  legislation  for  pure  food  and  meat  inspection,  and 
the  whole  mass  of  regulative  law  under  the  Interstate  Com 
merce  clause  of  the  constitution,  further  illustrates  the  same 
tendency. 

Two  ideals  were  fundamental  in  traditional  American 
thought,  ideals  that  developed  in  the  pioneer  era.  One  was 
that  of  individual  freedom  to  compete  unrestrictedly  for 
the  resources  of  a  continent  —  the  squatter  ideal.  To  the 
pioneer  government  was  an  evil.  The  other  was  the  ideal  of 
a  democracy  — "  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people 
and  for  the  people.' '  The  operation  of  these  ideals  took  place 
contemporaneously  with  the  passing  into  private  possession  of 
the  free  public  domain  and  the  natural  resources  of  the  United 
States.  But  American  democracy  was  based  on  an  abundance 
of  free  lands;  these  were  the  very  conditions  that  shaped  its 
growth  and  its  fundamental  traits.  Thus  time  has  revealed 
that  these  two  ideals  of  pioneer  democracy  had  elements  of 
mutual  hostility  and  contained  the  seeds  of  its  dissolution. 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY       321 

The  present  finds  itself  engaged  in  the  task  of  readjusting  its 
old  ideals  to  new  conditions  and  is  turning  increasingly  to 
government  to  preserve  its  traditional  democracy.  It  is  not 
surprising  that  socialism  shows  noteworthy  gains  as  elections 
continue;  that  parties  are*  forming  on  new  lines;  that  the 
demand  for  primary  elections,  for  popular  choice  of  senators, 
initiative,  referendum,  and  recall,  is  spreading,  and  that  the 
regions  once  the  center  of  pioneer  democracy  exhibit  these 
tendencies  in  the  most  marked  degree.  They  are  efforts  to 
find  substitutes  for  that  former  safeguard  of  democracy,  the 
disappearing  free  lands.  They  are  the  sequence  to  the  extinc 
tion  of  the  frontier. 

It  is  necessary  next  to  notice  that  in  the  midst  of  all  this 
national  energy,  and  contemporaneous  with  the  tendency  to 
turn  to  the  national  government  for  protection  to  democracy, 
there  is  clear  evidence  of  the  persistence  and  the  development 
of  sectionalism.5  Whether  we  observe  the  grouping  of  votes 
in  Congress  and  in  general  elections,  or  the  organization  and 
utterances  of  business  leaders,  or  the  association  of  scholars, 
churches,  or  other  representatives  of  the  things  of  the  spirit, 
we  find  that  American  life  is  not  only  increasing  in  its  national 
intensity  but  that  it  is  integrating  by  sections.  In  part  this 
is  due  to  the  factor  of  great  spaces  which  make  sectional  rather 
than  national  organization  the  line  of  least  resistance;  but, 
in  part,  it  is  also  the  expression  of  the  separate  economic,  polit 
ical,  and  social  interests  and  the  separate  spiritual  life  of  the 
various  geographic  provinces  or  sections.  The  votes  on  the 
tariff,  and  in  general  the  location  of  the  strongholds  of  the 
Progressive  Republican  movement,  illustrate  this  fact.  The 
difficulty  of  a  national  adjustment  of  railway  rates  to  the 

"  [I  have  outlined  this  subject  in  various  essays,  including  the  article 
on  "  Sectionalism "  in  McLaughlin  and  Hart,  "  Cyclopedia  of  Govern 
ment,"  "  Sections  and  Nation,"  in  Yale  Review,  October,  1922.] 


322       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

diverse  interests  of  different  sections  is  another  example. 
Without  attempting  to  enter  upon  a  more  extensive  discussion 
of  sectionalism,  I  desire  simply  to  point  out  that  there  are 
evidences  that  now,  as  formerly,  the  separate  geographical 
interests  have  their  leaders  and  spokesmen,  that  much  Con 
gressional  legislation  is  determined  by  the  contests,  triumphs, 
or  compromises  between  the  rival  sections,  and  that  the  real 
federal  relations  of  the  United  States  are  shaped  by  the  inter 
play  of  sectional  with  national  forces  rather  than  by  the  rela 
tion  of  State  and  Nation.  As  time  goes  on  and  the  nation 
adjusts  itself  more  durably  to  the  conditions  of  the  differing 
geographic  sections  which  make  it  up,  they  are  coming  to  a 
new  self-consciousness  and  a  revived  self-assertion.  Our 
national  character  is  a  composite  of  these  sections.6 

Obviously  in  attempting  to  indicate  even  a  portion  of  the 
significant  features  of  our  recent  history  we  have  been  obliged 
to  take  note  of  a  complex  of  forces.  The  times  are  so  close 
at  hand  that  the  relations  between  events  and  tendencies  force 
themselves  upon  our  attention.  We  have  had  to  deal  with  the 
connections  of  geography,  industrial  growth,  politics,  and  gov 
ernment.  With  these  we  must  take  into  consideration  the 
changing  social  composition,  the  inherited  beliefs  and  habitual 
attitude  of  the  masses  of  the  people,  the  psychology  of  the 
nation  and  of  the  separate  sections,  as  well  as  of  the  leaders. 
We  must  see  how  these  leaders  are  shaped  partly  by  their 
time  and  section,  and  how  they  are  in  part  original,  creative, 
by  virtue  of  their  own  genius  and  initiative.  We  cannot  neg 
lect  the  moral  tendencies  and  the  ideals.  All  are  related  parts 
of  the  same  subject  and  can  no  more  be  properly  understood 

6  [It  is  not  impossible  that  they  may  ultimately  replace  the  State  as 
the  significant  administrative  and  legislative  units.  There  are  strong 
evidences  of  this  tendency,  such  as  the  organization  of  the  Federal  Re- 
serve  districts,  and  proposals  for  railroad  administration  by  regions.] 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY       323 

in  isolation  than  the  movement  as  a  whole  can  be  understood 
by  neglecting  some  of  these  important  factors,  or  by  the  use 
of  a  single  method  of  investigation.  Whatever  be  the  truth 
regarding  European  history,  American  history  is  chiefly  con 
cerned  with  social  forces,  shaping  and  reshaping  under  the 
conditions  of  a  nation  changing  as  it  adjusts  to  its  environ 
ment.  And  this  environment  progressively  reveals  new  aspects 
of  itself,  exerts  new  influences,  and  calls  out  new  social  organs 
and  functions. 

I  have  undertaken  this  rapid  survey  of  recent  history  for 
two  purposes.  First,  because  it  has  seemed  fitting  to  empha 
size  the  significance  of  American  development  since  the  pass 
ing  of  the  frontier,  and,  second,  because  in  the  observation  of 
present  conditions  we  may  find  assistance  in  our  study  of  the 
past. 

It  is  a  familiar  doctrine  that  each  age  studies  its  history 
anew  and  with  interests  determined  by  the  spirit  of  the  time. 
Each  age  finds  it  necessary  to  reconsider  at  least  some  portion 
of  the  past,  from  points  of  view  furnished  by  new  conditions 
which  reveal  the  influence  and  significance  of  forces  not  ade 
quately  known  by  the  historians  of  the  previous  generation. 
Unquestionably  each  investigator  and  writer  is  influenced  by 
the  times  in  which  he  lives  and  while  this  fact  exposes  the  his 
torian  to  a  bias,  at  the  same  time  it  affords  him  new  instru 
ments  and  new  insight  for  dealing  with  his  subject. 

If  recent  history,  then,  gives  new  meaning  to  past  events, 
if  it  has  to  deal  with  the  rise  into  a  commanding  position  of 
forces,  the  origin  and  growth  of  which  may  have  been  inade 
quately  described  or  even  overlooked  by  historians  of  the 
previous  generation,  it  is  important  to  study  the  present  and 
the  recent  past,  not  only  for  themselves  but  also  as  the  source 
of  new  hypotheses,  new  lines  of  inquiry,  new  criteria  of  the 
perspective  of  the  remoter  past.  And,  moreover,  a  just  public 


324       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

opinion  and  a  statesmanlike  treatment  of  present  problems 
demand  that  they  be  seen  in  their  historical  relations  in  order 
that  history  may  hold  the  lamp  for  conservative  reform. 

Seen  from  the  vantage-ground  of  present  developments  what 
new  light  falls  upon  past  events!  When  we  consider  what  the 
Mississippi  Valley  has  come  to  be  in  American  life,  and  when 
we  consider  what  it  is  yet  to  be,  the  young  Washington,  cross 
ing  the  snows  of  the  wilderness  to  summon  the  French  to  evac 
uate  the  portals  of  the  great  valley,  becomes  the  herald  of  an 
empire.  When  we  recall  the  huge  industrial  power  that  has 
centered  at  Pittsburgh,  Braddock's  advance  to  the  forks  of  the 
Ohio  takes  on  new  meaning.  Even  in  defeat,  he  opened  a 
road  to  what  is  now  the  center  of  the  world's  industrial  energy. 
The  modifications  which  England  proposed  in  1794  to  John 
Jay  in  the  northwestern  boundary  of  the  United  States  from 
the  Lake  of  the  Woods  to  the  Mississippi,  seemed  to  him, 
doubtless,  significant  chiefly  as  a  matter  of  principle  and  as  a 
question  of  the  retention  or  loss  of  beaver  grounds.  The  his 
torians  hardly  notice  the  proposals.  But  they  involved,  in 
fact,  the  ownership  of  the  richest  and  most  extensive  deposits 
of  iron  ore  in  America,  the  all-important  source  of  a  funda 
mental  industry  of  the  United  States,  the  occasion  for  the  rise 
of  some  of  the  most  influential  forces  of  our  time. 

What  continuity  and  meaning  are  furnished  by  the  outcome 
in  present  times  of  the  movements  of  minor  political  parties 
and  reform  agitations!  To  the  historian  they  have  often 
seemed  to  be  mere  curious  side  eddies,  vexatious  distractions 
to  the  course  of  his  literary  craft  as  it  navigated  the  stream 
of  historical  tendency.  And  yet,  by  the  revelation  of  the  pres 
ent,  what  seemed  to  be  side  eddies  have  not  seldom  proven 
to  be  the  concealed  entrances  to  the  main  current,  and  the 
course  which  seemed  the  central  one  has  led  to  blind  channels 
and  stagnant  waters,  important  in  their  day,  but  cut  off  like  ox- 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY       325 

bow  lakes  from  the  mighty  river  of  historical  progress  by  the 
mere  permanent  and  compelling  forces  of  the  neglected  cur 
rents. 

We  may  trace  the  contest  between  the  capitalist  and  the 
democratic  pioneer  from  the  earliest  colonial  days.  It  is  influ 
ential  in  colonial  parties.  It  is  seen  in  the  vehement  protests 
of  Kentucky  frontiersmen  in  petition  after  petition  to  the  Con 
gress  of  the  Confederation  against  the  "  nabobs  "  and  men  of 
wealth  who  took  out  titles  to  the  pioneers'  farms  while  they 
themselves  were  too  busy  defending  those  farms  from  the 
Indians  to  perfect  their  claims.  It  is  seen  in  the  attitude  of 
the  Ohio  Valley  in  its  backwoods  days  before  the  rise  of  the 
Whig  party,  as  when  in  1811  Henry  Clay  denounced  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States  as  a  corporation  which  throve  on  special 
privileges  — "  a  special  association  of  favored  individuals 
taken  from  the  mass  of  society,  and  invested  with  exemptions 
and  surrounded  by  immunities  and  privileges."  Benton  voiced 
the  same  contest  twenty  years  later  when  he  denounced  the 
bank  as 

a  company  of  private  individuals,  many  of  them 
foreigners,  and  the  mass  of  them  residing  in  a 
remote  and  narrow  corner  of  the  Union,  uncon 
nected  by  any  sympathy  with  the  fertile  regions 
of  the  Great  Valley  in  which  the  natural  power 
of  this  Union,  the  power  of  numbers,  will  be  found 
to  reside  long  before  the  renewed  term  of  the 
second  charter  would  expire. 

"  And  where,"  he  asked,  "  would  all  this  power  and  money 
center?  In  the  great  cities  of  the  Northeast,  which  have  been 
for  forty  years  and  that  by  force  of  federal  legislation,  the 
lion's  den  of  Southern  and  Western  money  —  that  den  into 


326       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

which  all  the  tracks  point  inward;  from  which  the  returning 
track  of  a  solitary  dollar  has  never  yet  been  seen."  Declar 
ing,  in  words  that  have  a  very  modern  sound,  that  the  bank 
tended  to  multiply  nabobs  and  paupers,  and  that  "  a  great 
moneyed  power  is  favorable  to  great  capitalists,  for  it  is  the 
principle  of  capital  to  favor  capital,"  he  appealed  to  the  fact 
of  the  country's  extent  and  its  sectional  divergences  against 
the  nationalizing  of  capital. 

What  a  condition  for  a  confederacy  of  states! 
What  grounds  for  alarm  and  terrible  apprehension 
when  in  a  confederacy  of  such  vast  extent,  so  many 
rival  commercial  cities,  so  much  sectional  jealousy, 
such  violent  political  parties,  such  fierce  contests 
for  power,  there  should  be  but  one  moneyed  tri 
bunal  before  which  all  the  rival  and  contending  ele 
ments  must  appear. 

Even  more  vehement  were  the  words  of  Jackson  in  1837.  "  It 
is  now  plain,"  he  wrote,  "  that  the  war  is  to  be  carried  on  by 
the  monied  aristocracy  of  the  few  against  the  democracy  of 
numbers;  the  [prosperous]  to  make  the  honest  laborers  hewers 
of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  through  the  credit  and  paper 
system." 

Van  Buren's  administration  is  usually  passed  hastily  over 
with  hardly  more  than  mention  of  his  Independent  Treasury 
plan,  and  with  particular  consideration  of  the  slavery  dis 
cussion.  But  some  of  the  most  important  movements  in  Amer 
ican  social  and  political  history  began  in  these  years  of  Jack 
son  and  Van  Buren.  Read  the  demands  of  the  obscure  labor 
papers  and  the  reports  of  labor's  open-air  meetings  anew,  and 
you  will  find  in  the  utterances  of  so-called  labor  visionaries 
and  the  Locofoco  champions  of  "  equal  rights  for  all  and 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY       327 

special  privileges  for  none,"  like  Evans  and  Jacques,  Byrdsall 
and  Leggett,  the  finger  points  to  the  currents  that  now  make 
the  main  channel  of  our  history;  you  will  find  in  them  some 
of  the  important  planks  of  the  platforms  of  the  triumphant 
parties  of  our  own  day.  As  Professor  Commons  has  shown 
by  his  papers  and  the  documents  which  he  has  published  on 
labor  history,  an  idealistic  but  widespread  and  influential 
humanitarian  movement,  strikingly  similar  to  that  of  the  pres 
ent,  arose  in  the  years  between  1830  and  1850,  dealing  with 
social  forces  in  American  life,  animated  by  a  desire  to  apply 
the  public  lands  to  social  amelioration,  eager  to  find  new 
forms  of  democratic  development.  But  the  flood  of  the  slav 
ery  struggle  swept  all  of  these  movements  into  its  mighty 
inundation  for  the  time.  After  the  war,  other  influences 
delayed  the  revival  of  the  movement.  The  railroads  opened 
the  wide  prairies  after  1850  and  made  it  easy  to  reach  them; 
and  decade  after  decade  new  sections  were  reduced  to  the 
purposes  of  civilization  and  to  the  advantages  of  the  common 
man  as  well  as  the  promotion  of  great  individual  fortunes. 
The  nation  centered  its  interests  in  the  development  of  the 
West.  It  is  only  in  our  own  day  that  this  humanitarian  demo 
cratic  wave  has  reached  the  level  of  those  earlier  years.  But 
in  the  meantime  there  are  clear  evidences  of  the  persistence  of 
the  forces,  even  though  under  strange  guise.  Read  the  plat 
forms  of  the  Greenback-Labor,  the  Granger,  and  the  Populist 
parties,  and  you  will  find  in  those  platforms,  discredited  and 
reprobated  by  the  major  parties  of  the  time,  the  basic  pro 
posals  of  the  Democratic  party  after  its  revolution  under  the 
leadership  of  Mr.  Bryan,  and  of  the  Republican  party  after 
its  revolution  by  Mr.  Roosevelt.  The  Insurgent  movement 
is  so  clearly  related  to  the  areas  and  elements  that  gave  strength 
to  this  progressive  assertion  of  old  democratic  ideals  with 
new  weapons,  that  it  must  be  regarded  as  the  organized  refusal 


328       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  these  persistent  tendencies  to  be  checked  by  the  advocates  of 
more  moderate  measures. 

I  have  dealt  with  these  fragments  of  party  history,  not,  of 
course,  with  the  purpose  of  expressing  any  present  judgment 
upon  them,  but  to  emphasize  and  give  concreteness  to  the  fact 
that  there  is  disclosed  by  present  events  a  new  significance  to 
these  contests  of  radical  democracy  and  conservative  interests; 
that  they  are  rather  a  continuing  expression  of  deep-seated 
forces  than  fragmentary  and  sporadic  curios  for  the  historical 
museum. 

If  we  should  survey  the  history  of  our  lands  from  a  similar 
point  of  view,  considering  the  relations  of  legislation  and 
administration  of  the  public  domain  to  the  structure  of  Amer 
ican  democracy,  it  would  yield  a  return  far  beyond  that  offered 
by  the  formal  treatment  of  the  subject  in  most  of  our  histories. 
We  should  find  in  the  squatter  doctrines  and  practices,  the 
seizure  of  the  best  soils,  the  taking  of  public  timber  on  the 
theory  of  a  right  to  it  by  the  labor  expended  on  it,  fruitful 
material  for  understanding  the  atmosphere  and  ideals  under 
which  the  great  corporations  developed  the  West.  Men  like 
Senator  Benton  and  Delegate  Sibley  in  successive  generations 
defended  the  trespasses  of  the  pioneer  and  the  lumberman 
upon  the  public  forest  lands,  and  denounced  the  paternal  gov 
ernment  that  "  harassed "  these  men,  who  were  engaged  in 
what  we  should  call  stealing  government  timber.  It  is  evi 
dent  that  at  some  time  between  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  and  the  present  time,  when  we  impose  jail  sentences 
upon  Congressmen  caught  in  such  violations  of  the  land  laws, 
a  change  came  over  the  American  conscience  and  the  civic 
ideals  were  modified.  That  our  great  industrial  enterprises 
developed  in  the  midst  of  these  changing  ideals  is  important 
to  recall  when  we  write  the  history  of  their  activity. 

We  should  find  also  that  we  cannot  understand  the  land 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY       329 

question  without  seeing  its  relations  to  the  struggle  of  sections 
and  classes  bidding  against  each  other  and  finding  in  the  pub 
lic  domain  a  most  important  topic  of  political  bargaining. 
We  should  find,  too,  that  the  settlement  of  unlike  geographic 
areas  in  the  course  of  the  nation's  progress  resulted  in  changes 
in  the  effect  of  the  land  laws;  that  a  system  intended  for  the 
humid  prairies  was  ill-adjusted  to  the  grazing  lands  and  coal 
fields  and  to  the  forests  in  the  days  of  large-scale  exploitation 
by  corporations  commanding  great  capital.  Thus  changing 
geographic  factors  as  well  as  the  changing  character  of  the 
forces  which  occupied  the  public  domain  must  be  considered, 
if  we  would  understand  the  bearing  of  legislation  and  policy 
in  this  field.7  It  is  fortunate  that  suggestive  studies  of  democ 
racy  and  the  land  policy  have  already  begun  to  appear. 

The  whole  subject  of  American  agriculture  viewed  in  rela 
tion  to  the  economic,  political,  and  social  life  of  the  nation 
has  important  contributions  to  make.  If,  for  example,  we  study 
the  maps  showing  the  transition  of  the  wheat  belt  from  the 
East  to  the  West,  as  the  virgin  soils  were  conquered  and  made 
new  bases  for  destructive  competition  with  the  older  wheat 
States,  we  shall  see  how  deeply  they  affected  not  only  land 
values,  railroad  building,  the  movement  of  population,  and 
the  supply  of  cheap  food,  but  also  how  the  regions  once 
devoted  to  single  cropping  of  wheat  were  forced  to  turn  to 
varied  and  intensive  agriculture  and  to  diversified  industry, 
and  we  shall  see  also  how  these  transformations  affected  party 
politics  and  even  the  ideals  of  the  Americans  of  the  regions 
thus  changed.  We  shall  find  in  the  over-production  of  wheat 
in  the  provinces  thus  rapidly  colonized,  and  in  the  over-pro 
duction  of  silver  in  the  mountain  provinces  which  were  con 
temporaneously  exploited,  important  explanations  of  the  pecul- 

7  [See  R.  G.  Wellington,  "Public  Lands,  1820-1840";  G.  M.  Stephen- 
son,  "Public  Lands,  1841-1862";  J.  Ise,  "Forest  Policy."] 


330       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

iar  form  which  American  politics  took  in  the  period  when 
Mr.  Bryan  mastered  the  Democratic  party,  just  as  we  shall 
find  in  the  opening  of  the  new  gold  fields  in  the  years  imme 
diately  following,  and  in  the  passing  of  the  era  of  almost  free 
virgin  wheat  soils,  explanations  of  the  more  recent  period 
when  high  prices  are  giving  new  energy  and  aggressiveness  to 
the  demands  of  the  new  American  industrial  democracy. 

Enough  has  been  said,  it  may  be  assumed,  to  make  clear 
the  point  which  I  am  trying  to  elucidate,  namely  that  a  com 
prehension  of  the  United  States  of  to-day,  an  understanding 
of  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  forces  which  have  made  it  what 
it  is,  demands  that  we  should  rework  our  history  from  the 
new  points  of  view  afforded  by  the  present.  If  this  is  done,  it 
will  be  seen,  for  example,  that  the  progress  of  the  struggle 
between  North  and  South  over  slavery  and  the  freed  negro, 
which  held  the  principal  place  in  American  interest  in  the 
two  decades  after  1850,  was,  after  all,  only  one  of  the  interests 
in  the  time.  The  pages  of  the  Congressional  debates,  the  con 
temporary  newspapers,  the  public  documents  of  those  twenty 
years,  remain  a  rich  mine  for  those  who  will  seek  therein  the 
sources  of  movements  dominant  in  the  present  day. 

The  final  consideration  to  which  I  ask  your  attention  in  this 
discussion  of  social  forces  in  American  life,  is  with  reference 
to  the  mode  of  investigating  them  and  the  bearing  of  these 
investigations  upon  the  relations  and  the  goal  of  history.  It 
has  become  a  precedent,  fairly  well  established  by  the  distin 
guished  scholars  who  have  held  the  office  which  I  am  about  to 
lay  down,  to  state  a  position  with  reference  to  the  relations 
of  history  and  its  sister-studies,  and  even  to  raise  the  question 
of  the  attitude  of  the  historian  toward  the  laws  of  thermody 
namics  and  to  seek  to  find  the  key  of  historical  development 
or  of  historical  degradation.  It  is  not  given  to  all  to  bend 
the  bow  of  Ulysses.  I  shall  attempt  a  lesser  task. 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY      331 

We  may  take  some  lessons  from  the  scientist.  He  has 
enriched  knowledge  especially  in  recent  years  by  attacking 
the  no-man's  lands  left  unexplored  by  the  too  sharp  delimi 
tation  of  spheres  of  activity.  These  new  conquests  have  been 
especially  achieved  by  the  combination  of  old  sciences.  Phys 
ical  chemistry,  electro-chemistry,  geo-physics,  astro-physics, 
and  a  variety  of  other  scientic  unions  have  led  to  audacious 
hypotheses,  veritable  flashes  of  vision,  which  open  new  regions 
of  activity  for  a  generation  of  investigators.  Moreover  they 
have  promoted  such  investigations  by  furnishing  new  instru 
ments  of  research.  Now  in  some  respects  there  is  an  analogy 
between  geology  and  history.  The  new  geologist  aims  to 
describe  the  inorganic  earth  dynamically  in  terms  of  natural 
law,  using  chemistry,  physics,  mathematics,  and  even  botany 
and  zoology  so  far  as  they  relate  to  paleontology.  But  he  does 
riot  insist  that  the  relative  importance  of  physical  or  chemical 
factors  shall  be  determined  before  he  applies  the  methods 
and  data  of  these  sciences  to  his  problem.  Indeed,  he  has 
learned  that  a  geological  area  is  too  complex  a  thing  to  be 
reduced  to  a  single  explanation.  He  has  abandoned  the  single 
hypothesis  for  the  multiple  hypothesis.  He  creates  a  whole 
family  of  possible  explanations  of  a  given  problem  and  thus 
avoids  the  warping  influence  of  partiality  for  a  simple  theory. 

Have  we  not  here  an  illustration  of  what  is  possible  and 
necessary  for  the  historian?  Is  it  not  well,  before  attempting 
to  decide  whether  history  requires  an  economic  interpretation, 
or  a  psychological,  or  any  other  ultimate  interpretation,  to 
recognize  that  the  factors  in  human  society  are  varied  and 
complex;  that  the  political  historian  handling  his  subject  in 
isolation  is  certain  to  miss  fundamental  facts  and  relations  in 
his  treatment  of  a  given  age  or  nation;  that  the  economic  his 
torian  is  exposed  to  the  same  danger;  and  so  of  all  of  the 
other  special  historians? 


332       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Those  who  insist  that  history  is  simply  the  effort  to  tell  the 
thing  exactly  as  it  was,  to  state  the  facts,  are  confronted  with 
the  difficulty  that  the  fact  which  they  would  represent  is  not 
planted  on  the  solid  ground  of  fixed  conditions;  it  is  in  the 
midst  and  is  itself  a  part  of  the  changing  currents,  the  com 
plex  and  interacting  influences  of  the  time,  deriving  its  signifi 
cance  as  a  fact  from  its  relations  to  the  deeper-seated  move 
ments  of  the  age,  movements  so  gradual  that  often  only  the 
passing  years  can  reveal  the  truth  about  the  fact  and  its  right 
to  a  place  on  the  historian's  page. 

The  economic  historian  is  in  danger  of  making  his  analysis 
and  his  statement  of  a  law  on  the  basis  of  present  conditions 
and  then  passing  to  history  for  justificatory  appendixes  to  his 
conclusions.  An  American  economist  of  high  rank  has  re 
cently  expressed  his  conception  of  "  the  full  relation  of  eco 
nomic  theory,  statistics,  and  history  "  in  these  words : 

A  principle  is  formulated  by  a  priori  reason 
ing  concerning  facts  of  common  experience;  it  is 
then  tested  by  statistics  and  promoted  to  the  rank 
of  a  known  and  acknowledged  truth;  illustrations 
of  its  action  are  then  found  in  narrative  history 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  economic  law  becomes 
the  interpreter  of  records  that  would  otherwise  be 
confusing  and  comparatively  valueless;  the  law 
itself  derives  its  final  confirmation  from  the  illus 
trations  of  its  working  which  the  records  afford; 
but  what  is  at  least  of  equal  importance  is  the 
parallel  fact  that  the  law  affords  the  decisive 
test  of  the  correctness  of  those  assertions  concern 
ing  the  causes  and  the  effects  of  past  events  which 
it  is  second  nature  to  make  and  which  historians 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY       333 

almost  invariably  do  make  in  connection  with  their 
narrations.8 

There  is  much  in  this  statement  by  which  the  historian  may 
profit,  but  he  may  doubt  also  whether  the  past  should  serve 
merely  as  the  "  illustration  "  by  which  to  confirm  the  law 
deduced  from  common  experience  by  a  priori  reasoning  tested 
by  statistics.  In  fact  the  pathway  of  history  is  strewn  with 
the  wrecks  of  the  "  known  and  acknowledged  truths  "  of  eco 
nomic  law,  due  not  only  to  defective  analysis  and  imperfect 
statistics,  but  also  to  the  lack  of  critical  historical  methods, 
of  insufficient  historical-mindedness  on  the  part  of  the  econ 
omist,  to  failure  to  give  due  attention  to  the  relativity  and 
transiency  of  the  conditions  from  which  his  laws  were  deduced. 

But  the  point  on  which  I  would  lay  stress  is  this.  The 
economist,  the  political  scientist,  the  psychologist,  the  sociol 
ogist,  the  geographer,  the  student  of  literature,  of  art,  of  relig 
ion  —  all  the  allied  laborers  in  the  study  of  society  —  have 
contributions  to  make  to  the  equipment  of  the  historian.  These 
contributions  are  partly  of  material,  partly  of  tools,  partly 
of  new  points  of  view,  new  hypotheses,  new  suggestions  of  rela 
tions,  causes,  and  emphasis.  Each  of  these  special  students  is 
in  some  danger  of  bias  by  his  particular  point  of  view,  by 
his  exposure  to  see  simply  the  thing  in  which  he  is  primarily 
interested,  and  also  by  his  effort  to  deduce  the  universal  laws 
of  his  separate  science.  The  historian,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
exposed  to  the  danger  of  dealing  with  the  complex  and  inter 
acting  social  forces  of  a  period  or  of  a  country,  from  some 
single  point  of  view  to  which  his  special  training  or  interest 
inclines  him.  If  the  truth  is  to  be  made  known,  the  historian 

8  Professor  J.  B.  Clark,  in  Commons,  ed.,  "  Documentary  History  of 
American  Industrial  Society,"  I.  43-44. 


334       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

must  so  far  familiarize  himself  with  the  work,  and  equip  him 
self  with  the  training  of  his  sister-subjects  that  he  can  at  least 
avail  himself  of  their  results  and  in  some  reasonable  degree 
master  the  essential  tools  of  their  trade.  And  the  followers 
of  the  sister-studies  must  likewise  familiarize  themselves  and 
their  students  with  the  work  and  the  methods  of  the  historians, 
and  cooperate  in  the  difficult  task. 

It  is  necessary  that  the  American  historian  shall  aim  at  this 
equipment,  not  so  much  that  he  may  possess  the  key  to  history 
or  satisfy  himself  in  regard  to  its  ultimate  laws.  At  present 
a  different  duty  is  before  him.  He  must  see  in  American 
society  with  its  vast  spaces,  its  sections  equal  to  European 
nations,  its  geographic  influences,  its  brief  period  of  develop 
ment,  its  variety  of  nationalities  and  races,  its  extraordinary 
industrial  growth  under  the  conditions  of  freedom,  its  insti 
tutions,  culture,  ideals,  social  psychology,  and  even  its  relig 
ions  forming  and  changing  almost  under  his  eyes,  one  of  the 
richest  fields  ever  offered  for  the  preliminary  recognition  and 
study  of  the  forces  that  operate  and  interplay  in  the  making 
of  society. 


XIII 

MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY  * 

In  time  of  war,  when  all  that  this  nation  has  stood  for,  all 
the  things  in  which  it  passionately  believes,  are  at  stake,  we 
have  met  to  dedicate  this  beautiful  home  for  history. 

There  is  a  fitness  in  the  occasion.  It  is  for  historic  ideals 
that  we  are  fighting.  If  this  nation  is  one  for  which  we  should 
pour  out  our  savings,  postpone  our  differences,  go  hungry, 
and  even  give  up  life  itself,  it  is  not  because  it  is  a  rich, 
extensive,  well-fed  and  populous  nation;  it  is  because  from 
its  early  days  America  has  pressed  onward  toward  a  goal 
of  its  own;  that  it  has  followed  an  ideal,  the  ideal  of  a  democ 
racy  developing  under  conditions  unlike  those  of  any  other 
age  or  country. 

We  are  fighting  not  for  an  Old  World  ideal,  not  for  an 
abstraction,  not  for  a  philosophical  revolution.  Broad  and 
generous  as  are  our  sympathies,  widely  scattered  in  origin  as 
are  our  people,  keenly  as  we  feel  the  call  of  kinship,  the 
thrill  of  sympathy  with  the  stricken  nations  across  the  Atlantic, 
we  are  fighting  for  the  historic  ideals  of  the  United  States, 
for  the  continued  existence  of  the  type  of  society  in  which 
we  believe,  because  we  have  proved  it  good,  for  the  things 
which  drew  European  exiles  to  our  shores,  and  which  inspired 
the  hopes  of  the  pioneers. 

1  An  address  delivered  at  the  dedication  of  the  building  of  the  State 
Historical  Society  of  Minnesota,  May  11,  1918,  Printed  by  permission 
of  the  Society, 

335 


336       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

We  are  at  war  that  the  history  of  the  United  States,  rich 
with  the  record  of  high  human  purposes,  and  of  faith  in  the 
destiny  of  the  common  man  under  freedom,  filled  with  the 
promises  of  a  better  world,  may  not  become  the  lost  and 
tragic  story  of  a  futile  dream. 

Yes,  it  is  an  American  ideal  and  an  American  example  for 
which  we  fight;  but  in  that  ideal  and  example  lies  medicine 
for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  It  is  the  best  we  have  to  give 
to  Europe,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  vital  import  that  we  shall 
safeguard  and  preserve  our  power  to  serve  the  world,  and 
not  be  overwhelmed  in  the  flood  of  imperialistic  force  that 
wills  the  death  of  democracy  and  would  send  the  freeman 
under  the  yoke.  Essential  as  are  our  contributions  of  wealth, 
the  work  of  our  scientists,  the  toil  of  our  farmers  and  our 
workmen  in  factory  and  shipyard,  priceless  as  is  the  stream 
of  young  American  manhood  which  we  pour  forth  to  stop  the 
flood  which  flows  like  moulten  lava  across  the  green  fields  and 
peaceful  hamlets  of  Europe  toward  the  sea  and  turns  to  ashes 
and  death  all  that  it  covers,  these  contributions  have  their 
deeper  meaning  in  the  American  spirit.  They  are  born  of  the 
love  of  Democracy. 

Long  ago  in  prophetic  words  Walt  Whitman  voiced  the 
meaning  of  our  present  sacrifices: 

"  Sail,  sail  thy  best,  ship  of  Democracy, 

Of  value  is  thy  freight,  '  tis  not  the  Present  only, 

The  Past  is  also  stored  in  thee, 

Thou   holdest   not    the   venture   of   thyself   alone,   not   of   the   Western 

Continent  alone, 
Earth's   resume   entire   floats  on   thy   keel,   0   ship,   is   steadied   by  thy 

spars, 
With  thee  Time  voyages  in  trust,  the  antecedent  nations  sink  or  swim 

with  thee, 
With  all  their  ancient  struggles,  martyrs,  heroes,  epics,  wars,  thou  bear'st 

the  oilier  continents, 
Theirs,  theirs  as  much  as  thine,  the  destination-port  triumphant." 


MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY      337 

Shortly  before  the  Civil  War,  a  great  German,  exiled 
from  his  native  land  for  his  love  of  freedom,  came  from  his 
new  home  among  the  pioneers  of  the  Middle  West  to  set  forth 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  the  "  cradle  of  liberty,"  in  Boston,  his  vision 
of  the  young  America  that  was  forming  in  the  West,  "  the  last 
depository  of  the  hopes  of  all  true  friends  of  humanity." 
Speaking  of  the  contrast  between  the  migrations  to  the  Missis 
sippi  Valley  and  those  of  the  Old  World  in  other  centuries, 
he  said: 

It  is  now  not  a  barbarous  multitude  pouncing 
upon  old  and  decrepit  empires,  not  a  violent  con 
cussion  of  tribes  accompanied  by  all  the  horrors 
of  general  destruction,  but  we  see  the  vigorous 
elements  of  all  nations  .  .  .  peacably  con 
gregating  and  mingling  together  on  virgin  soil 
;  led  together  by  the  irresistible  attrac 
tion  of  free  and  broad  principles;  undertaking  to 
commence  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
without  first  destroying  the  results  of  the  progress 
of  past  periods;  undertaking  to  found  a  cosmo 
politan  nation  without  marching  over  the  dead 
bodies  of  slain  millions. 

If  Carl  Schurz  had  lived  to  see  the  outcome  of  that  Ger 
many  from  which  he  was  sent  as  an  exile,  in  the  days  when 
Prussian  bayonets  dispersed  the  legislatures  and  stamped  out 
the  beginnings  of  democratic  rule  in  his  former  country,  could 
he  have  better  pictured  the  contrasts  between  the  Prussian 
and  the  American  spirit?  He  went  on  to  say: 

Thus  was  founded  the  great  colony  of  free 
humanity,  which  has  not  old  England  alone,  but 
the  world  for  its  mother  country.  And  in  the  col- 


338       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

* 

ony  of  free  humanity,  whose  mother   country  is 

the  world,  they  established  the  Republic  of  equal 
rights  where  the  title  of  manhood  is  the  title  to 
citizenship.  My  friends,  if  I  had  a  thousand 
tongues,  and  a  voice  as  strong  as  the  thunder  of 
heaven,  they  would  not  be  sufficient  to  impress 
upon  your  minds  forcibly  enough  the  greatness 
of  this  idea,  the  overshadowing  glory  of  this  result. 
This  was  the  dream  of  the  truest  friends  of  man 
from  the  beginning;  for  this  the  noblest  blood  of 
martyrs  has  been  shed;  for  this  has  mankind 
waded  through  seas  of  blood  and  tears.  There  it 
is  now;  there  it  stands,  the  noble  fabric  in  all  the 
splendor  of  reality. 

It  is  in  a  solemn  and  inspiring  time,  therefore,  that  we  meet 
to  dedicate  this  building,  and  the  occasion  is  fitting  to  the  time. 
We  may  now  see,  as  never  before,  the  deeper  significance,  the 
larger  meaning  of  these  pioneers,  whose  plain  lives  and  homely 
annals  are  glorified  as  a  part  of  the  story  of  the  building  of 
a  better  system  of  social  justice  under  freedom,  a  broader,  and 
as  we  fervently  hope,  a  more  enduring  foundation  for  the 
welfare  and  progress  under  individual  liberty  of  the  common 
man,  an  example  of  federation,  of  peaceful  adjustments  by 
compromise  and  concession  under  a  self-governing  Republic, 
where  sections  replace  nations  over  a  Union  as  large  as 
Europe,  where  party  discussions  take  the  place  of  warring 
countries,  where  the  Pax  Americana  furnishes  an  example  for 
a  better  world. 

As  our  forefathers,  the  pioneers,  gathered  in  their  neigh 
borhood  to  raise  the  log  cabin,  and  sanctified  it  by  the  name 
of  home,  the  dwelling  place  of  pioneer  ideals,  so  we  meet 
to  celebrate  the  raising  of  this  home,  this  shrine  of  Minne- 


MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY     339 

sola's  historic  life.  It  symbolizes  the  conviction  that  the  past 
and  the  future  of  this  people  are  tied  together;  that  this 
Historical  Society  is  the  keeper  of  the  records  of  a  note 
worthy  movement  in  the  progress  of  mankind;  that  these 
records  are  not  unmeaning  and  antiquarian,  but  even  in  their 
details  are  worthy  of  preservation  for  their  revelation  of  the 
beginnings  of  society  in  the  midst  of  a  nation  caught  by  the 
vision  of  a  better  future  for  the  world. 

Let  me  repeat  the  words  of  Harriet  Martineau,  who  por 
trayed  the  American  of  the  thirties: 

I  regard  the  American  people  as  a  great  embryo 
poet,  now  moody,  now  wild,  but  bringing  out 
results  of  absolute  good  sense;  restless  and  way 
ward  in  action,  but  with  deep  peace  at  his  heart; 
exulting  that  he  has  caught  the  true  aspect  of 
things  past  and  the  depth  of  futurity  which  lies 
before  him,  wherein  to  create  something  so  mag 
nificent  as  the  world  has  scarcely  begun  to  dream 
of.  There  is  the  strongest  hope  of  a  nation  that 
is  capable  of  being  possessed  with  an  idea. 

And  recall  her  appeal  to  the  American  people  to  "  cherish 
their  high  democratic  hope,  their  faith  in  man.  The  older 
they  grow  the  more  they  must  reverence  the  dreams  of  their 
youth." 

The  dreams  of  their  youth!  Here  they  shall  be  preserved, 
and  the  achievements  as  well  as  the  aspirations  of  the  men 
who  made  the  State,  the  men  who  built  on  their  foundations, 
the  men  with  large  vision  and  power  of  action,  the  lesser  men 
in  the  mass,  the  leaders  who  served  the  State  and  nation  with 
devotion  to  the  cause.  Here  shall  be  preserved  the  record  of 
the  men  who  failed  to  see  the  larger  vision  and  worked  impa- 


340       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

tiently  with  narrow  or  selfish  or  class  ends,  as  well  as  of 
those  who  labored  with  patience  and  sympathy  and  mutual 
concession,  with  readiness  to  make  adjustments  and  to  sub 
ordinate  their  immediate  interests  to  the  larger  good  and  the 
immediate  safety  of  the  nation. 

In  the  archives  of  such  an  old  institution  as  that  of  the 
Historical  Society  of  Massachusetts,  whose  treasures  run  to 
the  beginnings  of  the  Puritan  colonization,  the  students  can 
not  fail  to  find  the  evidence  that  a  State  Historical  Society 
is  a  Book  of  Judgment  wherein  is  made  up  the  record  of  a 
people  and  its  leaders.  So,  as  time  unfolds,  shall  be  the 
collections  of  this  Society,  the  depository  of  the  material 
that  shall  preserve  the  memory  of  this  people.  Each  section 
of  this  widely  extended  and  varied  nation  has  its  own  pecul 
iar  past,  its  special  form  of  society,  its  traits  and  its  leaders. 
It  were  a  pity  if  any  section  left  its  annals  solely  to  the  col 
lectors  of  a  remote  region,  and  it  were  a  pity  if  its  collections 
were  not  transformed  into  printed  documents  and  monographic 
studies  which  can  go  to  the  libraries  of  all  the  parts  of  the 
Union  and  thus  enable  the  student  to  see  the  nation  as  a  whole 
in  its  past  as  well  as  in  its  present. 

This  Society  finds  its  special  field  of  activity  in  a  great 
State  of  the  Middle  West,  so  new,  as  history  reckons  time,  that 
its  annals  are  still  predominantly  those  of  the  pioneers,  but  so 
rapidly  growing  that  already  the  era  of  the  pioneers  is  a  part 
of  the  history  of  the  past,  capable  of  being  handled  objec 
tively,  seen  in  a  perspective  that  is  not  possible  to  the  observer 
of  the  present  conditions. 

Because  of  these  facts  I  have  taken  as  the  special  theme  of 
this  address  the  Middle  Western  Pioneer  Democracy,  which  I 
would  sketch  in  some  of  its  outstanding  aspects,  and  chiefly 
in  the  generation  before  the  Civil  War,  for  it  was  from  those 


MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY      341 

pioneers  that  the  later  colonization  to  the  newer  parts  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley  derived  much  of  their  traits,  and  from 
whom  large  numbers  of  them  came. 

The  North  Central  States  as  a  whole  is  a  region  compa 
rable  to  all  of  Central  Europe.  Of  these  States,  a  large  part 
of  the  old  Northwest, —  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan  and 
Wisconsin;  and  their  sisters  beyond  the  Mississippi  —  Mis 
souri,  Iowa  and  Minnesota  —  were  still,  in  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  home  of  an  essentially  pioneer  society. 
Within  the  lifetime  of  many  living  men,  Wisconsin  was  .called 
the  "  Far  West,"  and  Minnesota  was  a  land  of  the  Indian  and 
the  fur  traders,  a  wilderness  of  forest  and  prairie  beyond  the 
"edge  of  cultivation."  That  portion  of  this  great  region 
which  was  still  in  the  pioneering  period  of  settlement  by  1850 
was  alone  about  as  extensive  as  the  old  thirteen  States,  or 
Germany  and  Austria-Hungary  combined.  The  region  was  a 
huge  geographic  mold  for  a  new  society,  modeled  by  nature 
on  the  scale  of  the  Great  Lakes,  the  Ohio  Valley,  the  upper 
Mississippi  and  the  Missouri.  Simple  and  majestic  in  its  vast 
outlines  it  was  graven  into  a  variety  that  in  its  detail  also  had 
a  largeness  of  design.  From  the  Great  Lakes  extended  the 
massive  glacial  sheet  which  covered  that  mighty  basin  and 
laid  down  treasures  of  soil.  Vast  forests  of  pine  shrouded 
its  upper  zone,  breaking  into  hardwood  and  the  oak  openings 
as  they  neared  the  ocean-like  expanses  of  the  prairies.  For 
ests  again  along  the  Ohio  Valley,  and  beyond,  to  the  west,  lay 
the  levels  of  the  Great  Plains.  Within  the  earth  were  unex- 
ploited  treasures  of  coal  and  lead,  copper  and  iron  in  such 
form  and  quantity  as  were  to  revolutionize  the  industrial  proc 
esses  of  the  world.  But  nature's  revelations  are  progressive, 
and  it  was  rather  the  marvelous  adaptation  of  the  soil  to  the 
raising  of  corn  and  wheat  that  drew  the  pioneers  to  this  land 


342       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  promise,  and  made  a  new  era  of  colonization.  In  the  unity 
with  variety  of  this  pioneer  empire  and  in  its  broad  levels  we 
have  a  promise  of  its  society. 

First  had  come  the  children  of  the  interior  of  the  South, 
and  with  ax  and  rifle  in  hand  had  cut  their  clearings  in  the 
forest,  raised  their  log  cabins,  fought  the  Indians  and  by  1830 
had  pushed  their  way  to  the  very  edge  of  the  prairies  along 
the  Ohio  and  Missouri  Valleys,  leaving  unoccupied  most  of 
the  Basin  of  the  Great  Lakes. 

These  slashers  of  the  forest,  these  self-sufficing  pioneers,, 
raising  the  corn  and  live  stock  for  their  own  need,  living  scat 
tered  and  apart,  had  at  first  small  interest  in  town  life  or  a 
share  in  markets.  They  were  passionately  devoted  to  the  ideal 
of  equality,  but  it  was  an  ideal  which  assumed  that  under  free 
conditions  in  the  midst  of  unlimited  resources,  the  homogen 
eous  society  of  the  pioneers  must  result  in  equality.  What 
they  objected  to  was  arbitrary  obstacles,  artificial  limitations 
upon  the  freedom  of  each  member  of  this  frontier  folk  to 
work  out  his  own  career  without  fear  or  favor.  What  they 
instinctively  opposed  was  the  crystallization  of  differences, 
the  monopolization  of  opportunity  and  the  fixing  of  that 
monopoly  by  government  or  by  social  customs.  The  road 
must  be  open.  The  game  must  be  played  according  to  the 
rules.  There  must  be  no  artificial  stifling  of  equality  of  oppor 
tunity,  no  closed  doors  to  the  able,  no  stopping  the  free  game 
before  it  was  played  to  the  end.  More  than  that,  there  was 
an  unformulated,  perhaps,  but  very  real  feeling,  that  mere 
success  in  the  game,  by  which  the  abler  men  were  able  to 
achieve  preeminence  gave  to  the  successful  ones  no  right  to 
look  down  upon  their  neighbors,  no  vested  title  to  assert 
superiority  as  a  matter  of  pride  and  to  the  diminution  of  the 
equal  right  and  dignity  of  the  less  successful. 

If  this  democracy   of  Southern  pioneers,  this  Jacksonian 


MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY     343 

democracy,  was,  as  its  socialist  critics  have  called  it,  in  reality 
a  democracy  of  "  expectant  capitalists,"  it  was  not  one  which 
expected  or  acknowledged  on  the  part  of  the  successful  ones 
the  right  to  harden  their  triumphs  into  the  rule  of  a  privileged 
class.  In  short,  if  it  is  indeed  true  that  the  backwoods  democ 
racy  was  based  upon  equality  of  opportunity,  it  is  also  true 
that  it  resented  the  conception  that  opportunity  under  com 
petition  should  result  in  the  hopeless  inequality,  or  rule  of 
class.  Ever  a  new  clearing  must  be  possible.  And  because 
the  wilderness  seemed  so  unending,  the  menace  to  the  enjoy 
ment  of  this  ideal  seemed  rather  to  be  feared  from  government, 
within  or  without,  than  from  the  operations  of  internal  evolu 
tion. 

From  the  first,  it  became  evident  that  these  men  had  means 
of  supplementing  their  individual  activity  by  informal  com 
binations.  One  of  the  things  that  impressed  all  early  travel 
ers  in  the  United  States  was  the  capacity  for  extra-legal, 
voluntary  association.2  This  was  natural  enough;  in  all  Amer 
ica  we  can  study  the  process  by  which  in  a  new  land  social 
customs  form  and  crystallize  into  law.  We  can  even  see  how 
the  personal  leader  becomes  the  governmental  official.  This 
power  of  the  newly  arrived  pioneers  to  join  together  for  a  com 
mon  end  without  the  intervention  of  governmental  institutions 
was  one  of  their  marked  characteristics.  The  log  rolling, 
the  house-raising,  the  husking  bee,  the  apple  paring,  and  the 
squatters'  associations  whereby  they  protected  themselves 
against  the  speculators  in  securing  title  to  their  clearings  on 
the  public  domain,  the  camp  meeting,  the  mining  camp,  the 
vigilantes,  the  cattle-raisers'  associations,  the  "  gentlemen's 
agreements,"  are  a  few  of  the  indications  of  this  attitude.  It 
is  well  to  emphasize  this  American  trait,  because  in  a  modi- 

2  See  De  Tocqueville's  interesting  appreciation  of  this  American  phe 
nomenon. 


344       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

fied  way  it  has  come  to  be  one  of  the  most  characteristic  and 
important  features  of  the  United  States  of  to-day.  America 
does  through  informal  association  and  understandings  on  the 
part  of  the  people  many  of  the  things  which  in  the  Old  World 
are  and  can  be  done  only  by  governmental  intervention  and 
compulsion.  These  associations  were  in  America  not  due  to 
immemorial  custom  of  tribe  or  village  community.  They 
were  extemporized  by  voluntary  action. 

The  actions  of  these  associations  had  an  authority  akin  to 
that  of  law.  They  were  usually  not  so  much  evidences  of  a 
disrespect  for  law  and  order  as  the  only  means  by  which  real 
law  and  order  were  possible  in  a  region  where  settlement  and 
society  had  gone  in  advance  of  the  institutions  and  instru 
mentalities  of  organized  society. 

Because  of  these  elements  of  individualistic  competition  and 
the  power  of  spontaneous  association,  pioneers  were  responsive 
to  leadership.  The  backwoodsmen  knew  that  under  the  free 
opportunities  of  his  life  the  abler  man  would  reveal  himself, 
and  show  them  the  way.  By  free  choice  and  not  by  compul 
sion,  by  spontaneous  impulse,  and  not  by  the  domination  of 
a  caste,  they  rallied  around  a  cause,  they  supported  an  issue. 
They  yielded  to  the  principle  of  government  by  agreement, 
and  they  hated  the  doctrine  of  autocracy  even  before  it  gained 
a  name. 

They  looked  forward  to  the  extension  of  their  Amer 
ican  principles  to  the  Old  World  and  their  keenest  apprehen 
sions  came  from  the  possibility  of  the  extension  of  the  Old 
World's  system  of  arbitrary  rule,  its  class  wars  and  rivalries 
and  interventions  to  the  destruction  of  the  free  States  and 
democratic  institutions  which  they  were  building  in  the  for 
ests  of  America. 

If  we  add  to  these  aspects  of  early  backwoods  democracy, 
its  spiritual  qualities,  we  shall  more  easily  understand  them. 


MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY     345 

These  men  were  emotional.  As  they  wrested  their  clearing 
from  the  woods  and  from  the  savages  who  surrounded  them, 
as  they  expanded  that  clearing  and  saw  the  beginnings  of  com 
monwealths,  where  only  little  communities  had  been,  and  as 
they  saw  these  commonwealths  touch  hands  with  each  other 
along  the  great  course  of  the  Mississippi  River,  they  became 
enthusiastically  optimistic  and  confident  of  the  continued 
expansion  of  this  democracy.  They  had  faith  in  themselves 
and  their  destiny.  And  that  optimistic  faith  was  responsible 
both  for  their  confidence  in  their  own  ability  to  rule  and  for 
the  passion  for  expansion.  They  looked  to  the  future. 
"  Others  appeal  to  history:  an  American  appeals  to  prophecy; 
and  with  Malthus  in  one  hand  and  a  map  of  the  back  country 
in  the  other,  he  boldly  defies  us  to  a  comparison  with  America 
as  she  is  to  be,"  said  a  London  periodical  in  1821.  Just 
because,  perhaps,  of  the  usual  isolation  of  their  lives,  when 
they  came  together  in  associations  whether  of  the  camp  meet 
ing  or  of  the  political  gathering,  they  felt  the  influence  of  a 
common  emotion  and  enthusiasm.  Whether  Scotch-Irish  Pres 
byterian,  Baptist,  or  Methodist,  these  people  saturated  their 
religion  and  their  politics  with  feeling.  Both  the  stump  and 
the  pulpit  were  centers  of  energy,  electric  cells  capable  of 
starting  widespreading  fires.  They  felt  both  their  religion  and 
their  democracy,  and  were  ready  to  fight  for  it. 

This  democracy  was  one  that  involved  a  real  feeling  of  social 
comradeship  among  its  widespread  members.  Justice  Catron, 
who  came  from  Tennessee  to  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  presi 
dency  of  Jackson,  said:  "The  people  of  New  Orleans  and 
St.  Louis  are  next  neighbors  —  if  we  desire  to  know  a  man  in 
any  quarter  of  the  union  we  inquire  of  our  next  neighbor, 
who  but  the  other  day  lived  by  him."  Exaggerated  as  this  is, 
it  nevertheless  had  a  surprising  measure  of  truth  for  the 
Middle  West  as  well.  For  the  Mississippi  River  was  the  great 


346       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

highway  down  which  groups  of  pioneers  like  Abraham  Lin 
coln,  on  their  rafts  and  flat  boats,  brought  the  little  neighbor 
hood  surplus.  After  the  steamboat  came  to  the  western  waters 
the  voyages  up  and  down  by  merchants  and  by  farmers  shift 
ing  their  homes,  brought  people  into  contact  with  each  other 
over  wide  areas. 

This  enlarged  neighborhood  democracy  was  determined  not 
by  a  reluctant  admission  that  under  the  law  one  man  is  as 
good  as  another;  it  was  based  upon  "good  fellowship,"  sym 
pathy  and  understanding.  They  were  of  a  stock,  moreover, 
which  sought  new  trails  and  were  ready  to  follow  where  the 
trail  led,  innovators  in  society  as  well  as  finders  of  new 
lands. 

By  1830  the  Southern  inundation  ebbed  and  a  different  tide 
flowed  in  from  the  northeast  by  way  of  the  Erie  Canal  and 
steam  navigation  on  the  Great  Lakes  to  occupy  the  zone 
unreached  by  Southern  settlement.  This  new  tide  spread  along 
the  margins  of  the  Great  Lakes,  found  the  oak  openings  and 
small  prairie  islands  of  Southern  Michigan  and  Wisconsin; 
followed  the  fertile  forested  ribbons  along  the  river  courses 
far  into  the  prairie  lands;  and  by  the  end  of  the  forties  began 
to  venture  into  the  margin  of  the  open  prairie. 

In  1830  the  Middle  West  contained  a  little  over  a  million 
and  a  half  people;  in  1840,  over  three  and  a  third  millions; 
in  1850,  nearly  five  and  a  half  millions.  Although  in  1830 
the  North  Atlantic  States  numbered  between  three  and  four 
times  as  many  people  as  the  Middle  West,  yet  in  those  two 
decades  the  Middle  West  made  an  actual  gain  of  several  hun 
dred  thousand  more  than  did  the  old  section.  Counties  in 
the  newer  states  rose  from  a  few  hundred  to  ten  or  fifteen 
thousand  people  in  the  space  of  less  than  five  years.  Sud 
denly,  with  astonishing  rapidity  and  volume,  a  new  people  was 
forming  with  varied  elements,  ideals  and  institutions  drawn 


MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY     347 

from  all  over  this  nation  and  from  Europe.  They  were  con 
fronted  with  the  problem  of  adjusting  different  stocks,  varied 
customs  and  habits,  to  their  new  home. 

In  comparison  with  the  Ohio  Valley,  the  peculiarity  of  the 
occupation  of  the  northern  zone  of  the  Middle  West,  lay  in 
the  fact  that  the  native  element  was  predominantly  from  the 
older  settlements  of  the  Middle  West  itself  and  from  New 
York  and  New  England.  But  it  was  from  the  central  and 
western  counties  of  New  York  and  from  the  western  and 
northern  parts  of  New  England,  the  rural  regions  of  declining 
agricultural  prosperity,  that  the  bulk  of  this  element  came. 

Thus  the  influence  of  the  Middle  West  stretched  into  the 
Northeast,  and  attracted  a  farming  population  already  suffer 
ing  from  western  competition.  The  advantage  of  abundant, 
fertile,  and  cheap  land,  the  richer  agricultural  returns,  and 
especially  the  opportunities  for  youth  to  rise  in  all  the  trades 
and  professions,  gave  strength  to  this  competition.  By  it  New 
England  was  profoundly  and  permanently  modified. 

This  Yankee  stock  carried  with  it  a  habit  of  community 
life,  in  contrast  with  the  individualistic  democracy  of  the 
Southern  element.  The  colonizing  land  companies,  the  town, 
the  school,  the  church,  the  feeling  of  local  unity,  furnished 
the  evidences  of  this  instinct  for  communities.  This  instinct 
was  accompanied  by  the  creation  of  cities,  the  production 
of  a  surplus  for  market,  the  reaching  out  to  connections  with 
the  trading  centers  of  the  East,  the  evolution  of  a  more  com 
plex  and  at  the  same  time  a  more  integrated  industrial  society 
than  that  of  the  Southern  pioneer. 

But  they  did  not  carry  with  them  the  unmodified  New  Eng 
land  institutions  and  traits.  They  came  at  a  time  and  from  a 
people  less  satisfied  with  the  old  order  than  were  their 
neighbors  in  the  East.  They  were  the  young  men  with  initia 
tive,  with  discontent;  the  New  York  element  especially  was  af- 


343       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

fected  by  the  radicalism  of  Locofoco  democracy  which  was  in 
itself  a  protest  against  the  established  order. 

The  winds  of  the  prairies  swept  away  almost  at  once  a 
mass  of  old  habits  and  prepossessions.  Said  one  of  these 
pioneers  in  a  letter  to  friends  in  the  East: 

If  you  value  ease  more  than  money  or  pros 
perity,  don't  come.  .  .  .  Hands  are  too  few  for 
the  work,  houses  for  the  inhabitants,  and  days  for 
the  day's  work  to  be  done.  .  .  .  Next  if  you 
can't  stand  seeing  your  old  New  England  ideas, 
ways  of  doing,  and  living  and  in  fact,  all  of  the 
good  old  Yankee  fashions  knocked  out  of  shape 
and  altered,  or  thrown  by  as  unsuited  to  the  cli 
mate,  don't  be  caught  out  here.  But  if  you  can 
bear  grief  with  a  smile,  can  put  up  with  a  scale 
of  accommodations  ranging  from  the  soft  side  of 
a  plank  before  the  fire  (and  perhaps  three  in  a 
bed  at  that)  down  through  the  middling  and  infe 
rior  grades;  if  you  are  never  at  a  loss  for  ways  to 
do  the  most  unpracticable  things  without  tools; 
if  you  can  do  all  this  and  some  more  come  on. 
...  It  is  a  universal  rule  here  to  help  one  another, 
each  one  keeping  an  eye  single  to  his  own  interest." 

They  knew  that  they  were  leaving  many  dear  associations 
of  the  old  home,  giving  up  many  of  the  comforts  of  life,  sacri 
ficing  things  which  those  who  remained  thought  too  vital  to 
civilization  to  be  left.  But  they  were  not  mere  materialists 
ready  to  surrender  all  that  life  is  worth  for  immediate  gain. 
They  were  idealists  themselves,  sacrificing  the  ease  of  the 
immediate  future  for  the  welfare  of  their  children,  and  con 
vinced  of  the  possibility  of  helping  to  bring  about  a  better 


MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY     349 

social  order  and  a  freer  life.  They  were  social  idealists.  But 
they  based  their  ideals  on  trust  in  the  common  man  and  the 
readiness  to  make  adjustments,  not  on  the  rule  of  a  benevolent 
despot  or  a  controlling  class. 

The  attraction  of  this  new  home  reached  also  into  the  Old 
World  and  gave  a  new  hope  and  new  impulses  to  the  people 
of  Germany,   of  England,   of   Ireland,   and   of  Scandinavia. 
Both  economic  influences  and  revolutionary  discontent  pro 
moted  German  migration  at  this  time;  economic  causes  brought 
the  larger  volume,  but  the  quest  for  liberty  brought  the  leaders, 
many  of  whom  were  German  political  exiles.     While  the  latter 
urged,  with  varying  degrees  of  emphasis,  that  their  own  con 
tribution  should  be  preserved  in  their  new  surroundings,  and 
a  few  visionaries  even  talked  of  a  German  State  in  the  federal 
system,  what  was  noteworthy  was  the  adjustment  of  the  emi 
grants  of  the  thirties  and  forties  to  Middle  Western  conditions; 
the  response  to  the  opportunity  to  create  a  new  type  of  society 
in  which  all  gave  and  all  received  and  no  element  remained 
isolated.     Society  was  plastic.     In  the  midst  of  more  or  less 
antagonism  between  "  bowie  knife  Southerners,"  "  cow-milk 
ing  Yankee  Puritans,"  "  beer-drinking  Germans,"  "  wild  Irish 
men,"  a  process  of  mutual  education,  a  giving  and  taking,  was 
at  work.     In  the  outcome,  in  spite  of  slowness  of  assimilation 
where  different  groups  were  compact  and  isolated  from  the 
others,  and  a  certain  persistence  of  inherited  morale,  there 
was  the  creation  of  a  new  type,  which  was  neither  the  sum  of 
all  its  elements,  nor  a  complete  fusion  in  a  melting  pot.     They 
were  American  pioneers,  not  outlying  fragments  of  New  Eng 
land,  of  Germany,  or  of  Norway. 

The  Germans  were  most  strongly  represented  in  the  Mis 
souri  Valley,  in  St.  Louis,  in  Illinois  opposite  that  city,  and 
in  the  Lake  Shore  counties  of  eastern  Wisconsin  north  from 
Milwaukee.  In  Cincinnati  and  Cleveland  there  were  many 


350       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Germans,  while  in  nearly  half  the  counties  of  Ohio,  the  Ger 
man  immigrants  and  the  Pennsylvania  Germans  held  nearly  or 
quite  the  balance  of  political  power.  The  Irish  came  primarily 
as  workers  on  turnpikes,  canals  and  railroads,  and  tended  to 
remain  along  such  lines,  or  to  gather  in  the  growing  cities. 
The  Scandinavians,  of  whom  the  largest  proportion  were  Nor 
wegians,  founded  their  colonies  in  Northern  Illinois,  and  in 
Southern  Wisconsin  about  the  Fox  and  the  head  waters  of 
Rock  River,  whence  in  later  years  they  spread  into  Iowa,  Min 
nesota  and  North  Dakota. 

By  1850  about  one-sixth  of  the  people  of  the  Middle  West 
were  of  North  Atlantic  birth,  about  one-eighth  of  Southern 
birth,  and  a  like  fraction  of  foreign  birth,  of  whom  the  Ger 
mans  were  twice  as  numerous  as  the  Irish,  and  the  Scandina 
vians  only  slightly  more  numerous  than  the  Welsh,  and  fewer 
than  the  Scotch.  There  were  only  a  dozen  Scandinavians  in 
Minnesota.  The  natives  of  the  British  Islands,  together  with 
the  natives  of  British  North  America  in  the  Middle  West,  num 
bered  nearly  as  many  as  the  natives  of  German  lands.  But 
in  1850  almost  three-fifths  of  the  population  were  natives  of 
the  Middle  West  itself,  and  over  a  third  of  the  population 
lived  in  Ohio.  The  cities  were  especially  a  mixture  of  peo 
ples.  In  the  five  larger  cities  of  the  section  natives  and  for 
eigners  were  nearly  balanced.  In  Chicago  the  Irish,  Ger 
mans  and  natives  of  the  North  Atlantic  States  about  equaled 
each  other.  But  in  all  the  other  cities,  the  Germans  exceeded 
the  Irish  in  varying  proportions.  There  were  nearly  three  to 
one  in  Milwaukee. 

It  is  not  merely  that  the  section  was  growing  rapidly  and 
was  made  up  of  various  stocks  with  many  different  cultures, 
sectional  and  European;  what  is  more  significant  is  that  these 
elements  did  not  remain  as  separate  strata  underneath  an 
established  ruling  order,  as  was  the  case  particularly  in  New 


MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY     351 

England.  All  were  accepted  and  intermingling  components 
of  a  forming  society,  plastic  and  absorptive.  This  character 
istic  of  the  section  as  "  a  good  mixer  "  became  fixed  before  the 
large  immigrations  of  the  eighties.  The  foundations  of  the 
section  were  laid  firmly  in  a  period  when  the  foreign  elements 
were  particularly  free  and  eager  to  contribute  to  a  new  society 
and  to  receive  an  impress  from  the  country  which  offered  them 
a  liberty  denied  abroad.  Significant  as  is  this  fact,  and  influ 
ential  in  the  solution  of  America's  present  problems,  it  is  no 
more  important  than  the  fact  that  in  the  decade  before  the 
Civil  War,  the  Southern  element  in  the  Middle  West  had  also 
had  nearly  two  generations  of  direct  association  with  the 
Northern,  and  had  finally  been  engulfed  in  a  tide  of  Northeast 
ern  and  Old  World  settlers. 

In  this  society  of  pioneers  men  learned  to  drop  their  old 
national  animosities.  One  of  the  Immigrant  Guides  of  the 
fifties  urged  the  newcomers  to  abandon  their  racial  animos 
ities.  "  The  American  laughs  at  these  steerage  quarrels," 
said  the  author. 

Thus  the  Middle  West  was  teaching  the  lesson  of  national 
cross-fertilization  instead  of  national  enmities,  the  possibility 
of  a  newer  and  richer  civilization,  not  by  preserving  unmodi 
fied  or  isolated  the  old  component  elements,  but  by  breaking 
down  the  line-fences,  by  merging  the  individual  life  in  the 
common  product  —  a  new  product,  which  held  the  promise  of 
world  brotherhood.  If  the  pioneers  divided  their  allegiance 
between  various  parties,  Whig,  Democrat,  Free  Soil  or  Repub 
lican,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  western  Whig  was  like  the 
eastern  Whig.  There  was  an  infiltration  of  a  western  quality 
into  all  of  these.  The  western  Whig  supported  Harrison 
more  because  he  was  a  pioneer  than  because  he  was  a  Whig. 
It  saw  in  him  a  legitimate  successor  of  Andrew  Jackson.  The 
campaign  of  1840  was  a  Middle  Western  camp  meeting  on  a 


352       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

huge  scale.  The  log  cabins,  the  cider  and  the  coonskins  were 
the  symbols  of  the  triumph  of  Middle  Western  ideas,  and 
were  carried  with  misgivings  by  the  merchants,  the  bankers  and 
the  manufacturers  of  the  East.  In  like  fashion,  the  Middle 
Western  wing  of  the  Democratic  party  was  as  different  from 
the  Southern  wing  wherein  lay  its  strength,  as  Douglas  was 
from  Calhoun.  It  had  little  in  common  with  the  slaveholding 
classes  of  the  South,  even  while  it  felt  the  kinship  of  the 
pioneer  with  the  people  of  the  Southern  upland  stock  from 
which  so  many  Westerners  were  descended. 

In  the  later  forties  and  early  fifties  most  of  the  Middle 
Western  States  made  constitutions.  The  debates  in  their  con 
ventions  and  the  results  embodied  in  the  constitutions  them 
selves  tell  the  story  of  their  political  ideals.  Of  course,  they 
based  the  franchise  on  the  principle  of  manhood  suffrage. 
But  they  also  provided  for  an  elective  judiciary,  for  restric 
tions  on  the  borrowing  power  of  the  State,  lest  it  fall  under  the 
control  of  what  they  feared  as  the  money  power,  and  several 
of  them  either  provided  for  the  extinguishment  of  banks  of 
issue,  or  rigidly  restrained  them.  Some  of  them  exempted 
the  homestead  from  forced  sale  for  debt;  married  women's 
legal  rights  were  prominent  topics  in  the  debates  of  the  con 
ventions,  and  Wisconsin  led  off  by  permitting  the  alien  to  vote 
after  a  year's  residence.  It  welcomed  the  newcomer  to  the 
freedom  and  to  the  obligations  of  American  citizenship. 

Although  this  pioneer  society  was  preponderantly  an  agri 
cultural  society  it  was  rapidly  learning  that  agriculture  alone 
was  not  sufficient  for  its  life.  It  was  developing  manufac 
tures,  trade,  mining,  the  professions,  and  becoming  conscious 
that  in  a  progressive  modern  state  it  was  possible  to  pass  from 
one  industry  to  another  and  that  all  were  bound  by  common 
ties.  But  it  is  significant  that  in  the  census  of  1850,  Ohio, 
out  of  a  population  of  two  millions,  reported  only  a  thousand 


MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY      353 

servants,  Iowa  only  ten  in  two  hundred  thousand  and  Minne 
sota  fifteen  in  its  six  thousand. 

In  the  intellectual  life  of  this  new  democracy  there  was 
already  the  promise  of  original  contributions  even  in  the  midst 
of  the  engrossing  toil  and  hard  life  of  the  pioneer. 

The  country  editor  was  a  leader  of  his  people,  not  a  patent- 
insides  recorder  of  social  functions,  but  a  vigorous  and  inde 
pendent  thinker  and  writer.  The  subscribers  to  the  newspaper 
published  in  the  section  were  higher  in  proportion  to  popu 
lation  than  in  the  State  of  New  York  and  not  greatly  inferior 
to  those  of  New  England,  although  such  eastern  papers  as  the 
New  York  Tribune  had  an  extensive  circulation  throughout  the 
Middle  West.  The  agricultural  press  presupposed  in  its  arti 
cles  and  contributions  a  level  of  general  intelligence  and 
interest  above  that  of  the  later  farmers  of  the  section,  at 
least  before  the  present  day. 

Farmer  boys  walked  behind  the  plow  with  their  book  in 
hand  and  sometimes  forgot  to  turn  at  the  end  of  the  furrow; 
even  rare  boys,  who,  like  the  young  Howells,  "  limped  bare 
foot  by  his  father's  side  with  his  eyes  on  the  cow  and  his  mind 
on  Cervantes  and  Shakespeare." 

Periodicals  flourished  and  faded  like  the  prairie  flowers. 
Some  of  Emerson's  best  poems  first  appeared  in  one  of  these 
Ohio  Valley  magazines.  But  for  the  most  part  the  literature 
of  the  region  and  the  period  was  imitative  or  reflective  of  the 
common  things  in  a  not  uncommon  way.  It  is  to  its  children 
that  the  Middle  West  had  to  look  for  the  expression  of  its  life 
and  its  ideals  rather  than  to  the  busy  pioneer  who  was  break 
ing  a  prairie  farm  or  building  up  a  new  community.  Illit 
eracy  was  least  among  the  Yankee  pioneers  and  highest  among 
the  Southern  element.  When  illiteracy  is  mapped  for  1850 
by  percentages  there  appear  two  contrasting  zones,  the  one 
extending  from  New  England,  the  other  from  the  South. 


354       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  influence  of  New  England  men  was  strong  in  the  Yankee 
regions  of  the  Middle  West.  Home  missionaries,  and  repre 
sentatives  of  societies  for  the  promotion  of  education  in  the 
West,  both  in  the  common  school  and  denominational  col 
leges,  scattered  themselves  throughout  the  region  and  left  a 
deep  impress  in  all  these  States.  The  conception  was  firmly 
fixed  in  the  thirties  and  forties  that  the  West  was  the  coming 
power  in  the  Union,  that  the  fate  of  civilization  was  in  its 
hands,  and  therefore  rival  sects  and  rival  sections  strove  to 
influence  it  to  their  own  types.  But  the  Middle  West  shaped 
all  these  educational  contributions  according  to  her  own  needs 
and  ideals. 

The  State  Universities  were  for  the  most  part  the  result  of 
agitation  and  proposals  of  men  of  New  England  origin;  but 
they  became  characteristic  products  of  Middle  Western  society, 
where  the  community  as  a  whole,  rather  than  wealthy  bene 
factors,  supported  these  institutions.  In  the  end  the  commu 
nity  determined  their  directions  in  accord  with  popular  ideals. 
They  reached  down  more  deeply  into  the  ranks  of  the  common 
people  than  did  the  New  England  or  Middle  State  Colleges; 
they  laid  more  emphasis  upon  the  obviously  useful,  and 
became  coeducational  at  an  early  date.  This  dominance  of  the 
community  ideals  had  dangers  for  the  Universities,  which  were 
called  to  raise  ideals  and  to  point  new  ways,  rather  than  to 
conform. 

Challenging  the  spaces  of  the  West,  struck  by  the  rapidity 
with  which  a  new  society  was  unfolding  under  their  gaze,  it 
is  not  strange  that  the  pioneers  dealt  in  the  superlative  and 
saw  their  destiny  with  optimistic  eyes.  The  meadow  lot  of 
the  small  intervale  had  become  the  prairie,  stretching  farther 
than  their  gaze  could  reach. 

All  was  motion  and  change.  A  restlessness  was  universal. 
Men  moved,  in  their  single  life,  from  Vermont  to  New  York, 


from  New  York  to  Ohio,  from  Ohio  to  Wisconsin,  from  Wis 
consin  to  California,  and  longed  for  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 
When  the  bark  started  from  their  fence  rails,  they  felt  the 
call  to  change.  They  were  conscious  of  the  mobility  of  their 
society  and  gloried  in  it.  They  broke  with  the  Past  and  thought 
to  create  something  finer,  more  fitting  for  humanity,  more 
beneficial  for  the  average  man  than  the  world  had  ever  seen. 

"  With  the  Past  we  have  literally  nothing  to  do,"  said  B. 
Gratz  Brown  in  a  Missouri  Fourth  of  July  oration  in  1850, 
"  save  to  dream  of  it.  Its  lessons  are  lost  and  its  tongue  is 
silent.  We  are  ourselves  at  the  head  and  front  of  all  political 
experience.  Precedents  have  lost  their  virtue  and  all  their 
authority  is  gone.  .  .  .  Experience  can  profit  us  only  to  guard 
from  antequaled  delusions." 

"  The  yoke  of  opinion,"  wrote  Channing  to  a  Western  friend, 
speaking  of  New  England,  "  is  a  heavy  one,  often  crushing 
individuality  of  judgment  and  action,"  and  he  added  that 
the  habits,  rules,  and  criticisms  under  which  he  had  grown 
up  had  not  left  him  the  freedom  and  courage  which  are  needed 
in  the  style  of  address  best  suited  to  the  Western  people. 
Channing  no  doubt  unduly  stressed  the  freedom  of  the  West 
in  this  respect.  The  frontier  had  its  own  conventions  and 
prejudices,  and  New  England  was  breaking  its  own  cake  of 
custom  and  proclaiming  a  new  liberty  at  the  very  time  he 
wrote.  But  there  was  truth  in  the  Eastern  thought  of  the 
West,  as  a  land  of  intellectual  toleration,  one  which  questioned 
the  old  order  of  things  and  made  innovation  its  very  creed. 

The  West  laid  emphasis  upon  the  practical  and  demanded 
that  ideals  should  be  put  to  work  for  useful  ends;  ideals  were 
tested  by  their  direct  contributions  to  the  betterment  of  the 
average  man,  rather  than  by  the  production  of  the  man  of 
exceptional  genius  and  distinction. 

For,  in  fine  this  was  the  goal  of  the  Middle  West,  the  wel- 


356       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

fare  of  the  average  man;  not  only  the  man  of  the  South,  or 
of  the  East,  the  Yankee,  or  the  Irishman,  or  the  German,  but 
all  men  in  one  common  fellowship.  This  was  the  hope  of  their 
youth,  of  that  youth  when  Abraham  Lincoln  rose  from  rail- 
splitter  to  country  lawyer,  from  Illinois  legislator  to  congress 
man  and  from  congressman  to  President. 

It  is  not  strange  that  in  all  this  flux  and  freedom  and  novelty 
and  vast  spaces,  the  pioneer  did  not  sufficiently  consider  the 
need  of  disciplined  devotion  to  the  government  which  he  him 
self  created  and  operated.  But  the  name  of  Lincoln  and  the 
response  of  the  pioneer  to  the  duties  of  the  Civil  War, —  to 
the  sacrifices  and  the  restraints  on  freedom  which  it  entailed 
under  his  presidency,  reminds  us  that  they  knew  how  to  take 
part  in  a  common  cause,  even  while  they  knew  that  war's 
conditions  were  destructive  of  many  of  the  things  for  which 
they  worked. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  governmental  discipline:  that  which 
proceeds  from  free  choice,  in  the  conviction  that  restraint  of 
individual  or  class  interests  is  necessary  for  the  common  good; 
and  that  which  is  imposed  by  a  dominant  class,  upon  a  sub 
jected  and  helpless  people.  The  latter  is  Prussian  discipline, 
the  discipline  of  a  harsh  machine-like,  logical  organization, 
based  on  the  rule  of  a  military  autocracy.  It  assumes  that  if 
you  do  not  crush  your  opponent  first,  he  will  crush  you.  It 
is  the  discipline  of  a  nation  ruled  by  its  General  Staff,  assum 
ing  war  as  the  normal  condition  of  peoples,  and  attempting 
with  remorseless  logic  to  extend  its  operations  to  the  destruc 
tion  of  freedom  everywhere.  It  can  only  be  met  by  the  disci 
pline  of  a  people  who  use  their  own  government  for  worthy 
ends,  who  preserve  individuality  and  mobility  in  society  and 
respect  the  rights  of  others,  who  follow  the  dictates  of  human 
ity  and  fair  play,  the  principles  of  give  and  take.  The  Prus- 


MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY      357 

sian  discipline  is  the  discipline  of  Thor,  the  War  God,  against 
the  discipline  of  the  White  Christ. 

Pioneer  democracy  has  had  to  learn  lessons  by  experience: 
the  lesson  that  government  on  principles  of  free  democracy  can 
accomplish  many  things  which  the  men  of  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  did  not  realize  were  even  possible.  They 
have  had  to  sacrifice  something  of  their  passion  for  individual 
unrestraint;  they  have  had  to  learn  that  the  specially  trained 
man,  the  man  fitted  for  his  calling  by  education  and  experience, 
whether  in  the  field  of  science  or  of  industry,  has  a  place  in 
government;  that  the  rule  of  the  people  is  effective  and  endur 
ing  only  as  it  incorporates  the  trained  specialist  into  the  organ 
ization  of  that  government,  whether  as  umpire  between  con 
tending  interests  or  as  the  efficient  instrument  in  the  hands  of 
democracy. 

Organized  democracy  after  the  era  of  free  land  has  learned 
that  popular  government  to  be  successful  must  not  only  be 
legitimately  the  choice  of  the  whole  people;  that  the  offices 
of  that  government  must  not  only  be  open  to  all,  but  that 
in  the  fierce  struggle  of  nations  in  the  field  of  economic 
competition  and  in  the  field  of  war,  the  salvation  and  per 
petuity  of  the  republic  depend  upon  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  specialization  of  the  organs  of  the  government,  the  choice 
of  the  fit  and  the  capable  for  office,  is  quite  as  important  as 
the  extension  of  popular  control.  When  we  lost  our  free  lands 
and  our  isolation  from  the  Old  World,  we  lost  our  immunity 
from  the  results  of  mistakes,  of  waste,  of  inefficiency,  and  of 
inexperience  in  our  government. 

But  in  the  present  day  we  are  also  learning  another  lesson 
which  was  better  known  to  the  pioneers  than  to  their  imme 
diate  successors.  We  are  learning  that  the  distinction  arising 
from  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  commonwealth  is  a 


358       THE  FRONTIER  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

higher  distinction  than  mere  success  in  economic  competition. 
America  is  now  awarding  laurels  to  the  men  who  sacrifice 
their  triumphs  in  the  rivalry  of  business  in  order  to  give  their 
service  to  the  cause  of  a  liberty-loving  nation,  their  wealth 
and  their  genius  to  the  success  of  her  ideals.  That  craving 
for  distinction  which  once  drew  men  to  pile  up  wealth  and 
exhibit  power  over  the  industrial  processes  of  the  nation,  is 
now  finding  a  new  outlet  in  the  craving  for  distinction  that 
comes  from  service  to  the  Union,  in  satisfaction  in  the  use  of 
great  talent  for  the  good  of  the  republic. 

And  all  over  the  nation,  in  voluntary  organizations  for  aid 
to  the  government,  is  being  shown  the  pioneer  principle  of 
association  that  was  expressed  in  the  "  house  raising."  It 
is  shown  in  the  Red  Cross,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the  Knights  of 
Columbus,  the  councils  and  boards  of  science,  commerce,  labor, 
agriculture;  and  in  all  the  countless  other  types,  from  the 
association  of  women  in  their  kitchen  who  carry  out  the  recom 
mendations  of  the  Food  Director  and  revive  the  plain  living 
of  the  pioneer,  to  the  Boy  Scouts  who  are  laying  the  founda 
tions  for  a  self-disciplined  and  virile  generation  worthy  to 
follow  the  trail  of  the  backwoodsmen.  It  is  an  inspiring 
prophecy  of  the  revival  of  the  old  pioneer  conception  of  the 
obligations  and  opportunities  of  neighborliness,  broadening 
to  a  national  and  even  to  an  international  scope.  The  prom 
ise  of  what  that  wise  and  lamented  philosopher,  Josiah  Royce 
called,  "the  beloved  community."  In  the  spirit  of  the  pio 
neer's  "  house  raising  "  lies  the  salvation  of  the  Republic. 

This  then  is  the  heritage  of  pioneer  experience, —  a  passion 
ate  belief  that  a  democracy  was  possible  which  should  leave 
the  individual  a  part  to  play  in  free  society  and  not  make 
him  a  cog  in  a  machine  operated  from  above;  which  trusted 
in  the  common  man,  in  his  tolerance,  his  ability  to  adjust 
differences  with  good  humor,  and  to  work  out  an  American 


MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY      359 

type  from  the  contributions  of  all  nations  —  a  type  for  which 
he  would  fight  against  those  who  challenged  it  in  arms,  and 
for  which  in  time  of  war  he  would  make  sacrifices,  even  the 
temporary  sacrifice  of  individual  freedom  and  his  life,  lest  that 
freedom  be  lost  forever. 


INDEX 


Absentee  proprietors,  55,  297 

Achievement,  309 

Adams,  Henry,  213 

Adams,  J.  Q.,  26,  192,  230 

Agriculture,  314,  329;  Middle 
West,  149,  150 

Agriculture,  Department  of,  320 

Alamance,  119,  120 

Alaska,  296 

Albany,  43,  52 

Albany  congress  of  1754,  15 

Algonquin  Indians,  130 

Aliens,  land  tenure  by,  110 

Alleghany  Mountains,  9,  18,  67; 
as  barrier  to  be  overcome,  195 

Allen,  Ethan,  54 

Allen,  W.  V.,  220 

American  Historical  Assoc.,  159 

American  history,  social  forces, 
311;  survey  of  recent,  311 

American  life,  distinguishing  fea 
ture,  2 

American  people,  339 

American  spirit,  306,  336,  337 

"  American  System,"  171,  172 

Americanization,  effective,  4 

Arid  lands,  9,  147,  219,  239,  245, 
278 

Aristocracy,  250,  254,  257,  275 

Army  posts,  frontier,  16;  proto 
types,  47 

Asia,  296 

Association,  voluntary,  343,  344, 
358 

Astor's  American  Fur  Co.,  6,  143 

Atlantic  coast,  as  early  frontier,  4; 
Mississippi  Valley  and,  190,  191; 

361 


Northern,  History,  295 
Atlantic  frontier,  composition,  12 
Atlantic  states,  207,  208 
Augusta,  Ga.,  98 
Autocracy,  344 

Back  country,  68,  70;  democracy 
of,  248;  New  England,  75 

Backwoods  society,  212 

Backwoodsmen,  163,  164 

Bacon,  Francis,  286 

Bacon's  Rebellion,  84,  247,  251,  301 

Baltimore,  trade,  108 

Bancroft,  George,  168 

Bank,  171,  254,  325 

Bedford,  Pa.,  5 

Beecher,  Lyman,  35 

Bell,  John,  192 

Benton,  T.  H.,  26,  35,  192,  325,  328 

Berkshires,  60,  71,  77 

Beverley,  Robert,  85,  91;  manor, 
92 

"  Birch  seal,"  78 

Black  Hills,  145 

Blackmar,  F.  W.,  238 

Blank  patents,  95 

Blood-feud,  253 

Blount,  William,  187 

Blue  Ridge,  90,  99 

Boone,  A.  J.,  19 

Boone,  Daniel,  18,  105,  124,  165, 
206 

Boston,  trade,  108 

Boutmy,  E.  G.,  211 

Braddock,  Edward,  181,  324 

Brattle,  Thomas,  56 

British  and  Middle  West,  350 


362 


INDEX 


Brown,  B.  Gratz,  355 

Brunswick  County,  Va.,  91 

Bryan,  W.  J.,  204,  236,  237,  246, 
281,  327,  329 

Bryce,  James,  165,  206,  211,  284 

Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  136,  150,  151 

Buffalo  herds,  144 

Buffer  state,  131,  134 

Burke,  Edmund,  33;  on  the  Ger 
mans,  109 

Byrd,  Col.  William,  84,  87,  98 

Calhoun,  J.  C.,  2,  105,  141,  174, 
206,  241;  on  representation,  117; 
policy  of  obtaining  western  trade 
for  the  South,  196 

California,  8;  gold,  144 

Canada,  53,  226;  barrier  between, 
and  the  United  States,  131;  bor 
der  warfare,  44;  homesteads, 
2%;  Middle  West  and,  128; 
wheat  fields,  278 

Canadians,  227 

Canals,  deep  water,  150 

Capital,  276,  305,  325;  concentra 
tion  and  combinations,  245,  261, 
266,  280,  305-306 

"  Capitalistic  classes,"  285 

Capitalists,  20 ;  "  expectant,"  343 

Capitals,  state,  transfers,  121 

Captains  of  industry,  258,  259,  260 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  260,  265 

Caroline  cow-pens,  16 

Catron,  John,  345 

Cattle  raising  in  Virginia,  88,  89,  92 

Census,  first,  frontier  at,  5 

Census  of  1820,  frontier,  6 

Census  of  1890,  extinction  of  fron 
tier,  1,  9,  38,  39,  297 

Center  of  nation,  222 

Channing,  W.  E.,  355 

Charleston,  S.  C.,  88,  108,  196 

Chase,  S.  P.,  104,  142 

Cherry  Valley,  104 


Chicago,  137,  150,  151,  180,  350; 
character,  232 

Chillicothe,  133,  223 

Cincinnati,  133,  151,  162,  223,  231, 
232 

Cincinnati  and  Charleston  R.  R., 
174 

Cities,  297,  316-317;  northeastern, 
294-295;  seaboard,  194,  195, 
196;  three  periods  of  develop 
ment,  195 

Civil  War,  356;  Middle  West  and, 
142 ;  Mississippi  Valley  and,  201 ; 
Northwest  and,  217 

Clark,  G.  R.,  131,  167,  186 

Clark,  J.  B.,  332 

Class  distinctions,  280,  285 

Clay,  Henry,  26,  168,  171,  172,  173, 
174,  192,  197,  206,  213,  216,  226, 
241,  304,  325 

Cleaveland,  Gen.  Moses,  133,  222, 
257 

Cleveland,  133,  150,  223,  231,  232 

Clinton,  DeWitt,  195,  196 

Coal  supply,  313 

Coast,  Atlantic,  206;  destiny,  295; 
interior  and,  antagonisms,  110 

Coeducation,  353 

Golden,  Cadwallader,  80 

Colonial  life,  11 

Colonial  system,  127 

Colonization,  312;  English  and 
French  contrasted,  13-14;  peace 
ful,  169 

Colony  of  free  humanity,  337-338 

Columbus,  Ohio,  162,  229 

Combinations  of  capital  and  of  la 
bor,  245 

Commencement  seasons,  290 

Commons,  J.  R.,  327 

Community,  "  beloved  community," 
358;  life,  347;  type  of  settle 
ment,  73,  74,  125 

Competition,  154,  203,  277,  308,  312 


INDEX 


363 


Compromise,   174,   198,   230,   236; 

slavery,  140,  142 
Concentration  of  power  and  wealth, 

245,  261,  266,  280 
Concord,  Mass.,  39 
Concurrent  majority,  118 
Congregational  church,  74,  112 
Congress    and    frontiersmen,    252- 

253 
Connecticut,  frontier  towns,  42,  45, 

53;  land  policy,  76 
Connecticut  River,  52,  53,  72 
Connecticut  Valley,  63,  73 
Conquest,  269 
Conscience,  American,  328 
Constitution,  U.  S.,  209,  244 
Constitutional  convention  of  1787, 

249 
Constitutions,  state,  121,  252,  352; 

reconstruction,  192 
Cooperation,   voluntary,    165,    257, 

258 

Corn,  areas,  149;  belt,  151 
Corporations,  265,  328 
Cotton  culture,  28,  139,  255;  early 

extension,   7;    transfer  from  the 

East  to  Mississippi  Valley,  194 
"Cotton  Kingdom,"  174,  189,  194, 

198 

Coureurs  de  bois,  182 
Cow  pens,  16,  88 
Crockett,  Davy,  105 
Crops,  migration,  149 
Currency,  148;  evil,  32;  expansion, 

210 
Cutler,  Manasseh,  141 

Dairy  interests  in  Wisconsin,  234, 

236 

Dakotas,  settlement,  145,  146 
Darien,  Ga.,  98 

Davis,  Jefferson,  105,  139,  174 
De  Bow,  J.  D.  B.,  197 
De  Bow's  Review,  217 


Debs,  E.  V.,  281 

Dedham,  40,  58 

Deerfield,  48,  52,  58,  70 

Democracy,  32,  54,  306;  doubts  of, 
280;  established  in  Old  West, 
107;  free  land  and,  274;  frontier, 
early,  106;  frontier  and,  30,  31, 
247,  249;  Gookin  on,  307;  in 
early  18th  century,  98;  Jack- 
sonian,  192,  302,  342-343;  Jeffer- 
sonian,  250,  251;  magnitude  of 
achievement  in  the  West,  258; 
Middle  West,  154;  Mississippi 
Valley,  183;  neighborhood,  346; 
new  type  in  West,  210,  216;  Ohio 
Valley,  influence,  172;  Ohio  Val 
ley  and,  175;  organized,  357; 
origin,  293;  outcome  of  Ameri 
can  experiences,  266;  pressure 
on  the  universities,  283;  signifi 
cance  of  Mississippi  Valley  in 
promoting,  190;  Upland  South, 
165;  Western  contributions,  243; 
Western  ideals,  261 ;  see  also  Pio 
neer  democracy 

Democratic  party,  327,  329;  basis, 
248;  Middle  Western  wing,  352 

Democratic-Republican   party,   250 

Denver,  Colo.,  19 

De  Tocqueville.    See  Tocqueville 

Detroit,  135,  150 

Development,  American,  205,  221; 
four  changes,  244;  personal,  271; 
significant  decade,  246-247; 
study  of,  10;  true  point  of  view, 
3;  Western,  218 

D'Iberville.    See  Iberville 

Discovery,  270,  293,  301,  306 

Doddridge,  Joseph,  115 

Dogs  for  hunting  Indians,  45 

Douglas,  S.  A.,  140;  Lincoln  de 
bates,  230 

Douglass,  William,  109 

Down  east,  79 


364 


INDEX 


Dracut,  111 
Dreams,  301,  339 
Duel,  253 

Duluth,  150,  151,  234 
Dunkards,  263 
Dunstable,  48,  56 
Duquesne,  Abraham,  14 
Dwight,  Timothy  (1752-1817),  63; 
fears  of  pioneer  class,  251 

East,  efforts  to  restrict  advance  of 
frontier,  33,  34;  fears  of  the 
West,  208;  out  of  touch  with 
West,  18 

Economic  forces  and  political  in 
stitutions,  243 

Economic  historian,  332 

Economic  legislation  and  Ohio  Val 
ley,  170 

Education,  282;  Middle  West,  156 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  63 

Egleston,  Melville,  55 

Eliot,  C.  W.,  on  corporation,  265; 
on  democracy  and  slavery,  256 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  353;  on  Lincoln, 
256 

England,  decrease  of  dependence 
on,  23;  Mississippi  Valley  and, 
180,  186;  Old  Northwest  and, 
131,  134 

English  pioneers,  270 

English  settlers  in  Michigan  and 
Wisconsin,  226 

English  stock  and  English  speech, 
23 

Equality,  274;  New  England,  61, 
62,  63;  Western  settlers,  212 

Erie  Canal,  7,  136,  195,  197 

Europe,  American  democracy  and, 
282;  how  America  reacted  on, 
3;  Southeastern,  294,  295,  316 

Europeans,  267 

Evolution,  American,  as  key  to  his 
tory,  11 


Expansion,  206,  219,  304,  345;  Ohio 
Valley  and,  166;  world  politics, 
246 

Experts,  284,  285,  286 

"Fall  line,"   4,   9,   68;    efforts   to 

establish  military  frontier  on,  84 
Fairfax,  Lord,  92,  123 
Far  East,  315 
Far  West,  315,  341 
Farm  lands,  297 
Farm  machinery,  276 
Farmers,  238,  239 
Farmer's  frontier,  12,  16,  18 
Federal  colonial  system,  168,  169 
Federal  Reserve  districts,  322 
Fertility,  129 
Field,  Marshall,  265 
Finance,  318,  325;   pioneer  ideas, 

148 

Fire-arms  and  Indians,  13 
Firmin,  Giles,  56 
Food  supply,  279,  294,  314 
Foreign    parentage,    Indiana    and 

Illinois,    232;     Michigan,    233; 

Western  States,  237;  Wisconsin, 

233-234 

Foreign  policy,  168,  219 
Foreign  Service,  320 
Forest  philosophy,  207 
"Foresters,"  63 
Forests,    270,    293;    Middle   West, 

130 

Fortified  houses,  71 
Fourierists,  263 
France,  efforts  to  revive  empire  in 

America,  167;  Middle  West  and, 

131;  Mississippi  Valley  and,  180, 

186;    western    exploration,    163; 
Franchise,  249-250,  252 
Franklin,     Benjamin,     Mississippi 

Valley  and,  182 ;  on  the  Germans, 

109 
Free  Soil  party,  141,  173,  217 


INDEX 


365 


French  explorers,  163 

French  frontier,  125 

French  Huguenots,  105 

French  settlers  in  Michigan  and 
Wisconsin,  226 

Frontier,  conservative  attitude  to 
ward  advance,  63;  definition,  3, 
41;  demand  for  independent 
statehood,  248;  efforts  to  check 
and  restrict  it,  33;  evil  effects, 
32;  extinction,  1,  9,  38,  39,  321; 
farmers,  239,  240;  first  official, 
39,  54;  French,  125;  importance 
as  a  military  training  school,  15; 
influence  toward  democracy,  247, 
249;  kinds  and  modes  of  ad 
vance,  12;  Massachusetts,  65; 
military,  of  Old  West,  106-107; 
religious  aspects,  36;  Spanish, 
125;  towns  in  Massachusetts,  42, 
45,  53,  70;  various  comparisons, 
10 

Frontiersmen,  206,  209,  212;  in 
Congress,  252-253 ;  Mississippi 
Valley,  182 ;  Virginia  idea,  86 

Fulton,  Robert,  171 

Fur  trade,  13;  England  after  Revo 
lution,  131;  Hudson  River,  80; 
Southern,  Old  West,  87 


Gallatin,  Albert,  191,  252,  317 

Galveston,  202 

Garfield,  J.  A.,  241 

Geographic  factors,  329 

Geographic   provinces,   158 

Georgia,  174,  196;  restriction  of 
land  tenure,  97;  settlement,  97 

Germanic  germs,  3,  4 

Germans,  263;  in  New  York  in 
early  times,  5;  Middle  West  and, 
137-138,  146;  Palatine,  5,  32,  82, 
100,  109,  124;  political  exiles, 
349;  sectaries,  164;  Wisconsin, 


23,  227,  236;  zone  of  settlement 

in  Great  Valley,  102 
Glarus,  236 
Godkin,  E.  L.,  307 
Glenn,  James,  23,  108 
Goochland  County,  Va.,  93 
Government,    321;    paternal,    328; 

popular,  357 

Government  discipline,  356 
Government  expeditions,  17 
Government  intervention,  344 
Government  ownership,  148 
Government  powers,  307 
Government  regulation,  281 
Granger  movement,  148,  203,  218, 

276,  281 

Grant,  U.  S.,  142 
Granville,  Lord,  95,  123 
Great  Lakes,  128,  149,  150,  173,  297 
Great  Plains,  8,  128,  147;   Indian 

trade  and  war,  144 
Great    Valley,    100;    colonization, 

100-101 

Greater  South,  174 
Greeley,  Horace,  104 
Green  Mountain  Boys,  78 
Greenback    movement,    148,    203, 

218,  276 

Greenway  manor,  92 
Groseilliers,  180 
Groton,  48,  57 
Grund,  F.  J.,  7 
Grundy,  Felix,  192 
Gulf  coast,  295 
Gulf  States,  141;  occupation,  139 

Hammond,  J.  H.,  on  slavery  prob 
lem  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  198 

Hanna,  Marcus,  265 

Harriman,  E.  H.,  280,  318 

Harrison,  W.  H.,  168,  173,  189,  192, 
213,  255 

Hart,  A.  B.,  177 

Hartford,  76 


366 


INDEX 


Haverhill,  51,  62 

Hayes,  R.  B.,  241 

Henry,  Patrick,  95 

Heroes,  254,  256;  Western,  213 

High  thinking,  287 

Higher  law,  239 

Hill,  J.  J.,  260 

Historian,  333 

Historic  ideals,  306,  335 

Historical  societies,  159-160,  339 

History,  character,  331-332;  new 
viewpoints,  330 

Holland,  J.  G.,  73 

Hoist,  H.  E.  von,  24 

Home  markets,  108,  216 

Home  missions,  36,  354 

Homestead  law  of  1862,  145,  276 

Hoosier  State,  224 

Housatonic  River,  71 

Housatonic  Valley,  72 

Houston,  Sam,  105 

Howells,  W.  D.,  353 

Hudson  River,  53,  79;  frontier,  43; 
fur  trade,  80 

Humanitarian  movement,  327 

Huxley,  T.  H.,  on  modern  civiliza 
tion,  300 

Iberville,  P.  le  M.  d',  180 

Icarians,  263 

Idealists,  America  the  goal,  261; 
social,  349 

Ideals,  239;  American,  and  the 
West,  290;  American,  loyalty  to, 
307 ;  American  historic,  306,  335 ; 
immigrants,  264;  Middle  West, 
153;  Mississippi  Valley,  203; 
pioneer,  and  the  State  university, 
269;  readjustment,  321,  328; 
Western,  209,  214,  267;  Western 
democracy  and,  261 

Illinois,  composite  nationality,  232; 
elements  of  settlement,  225;  set 
tlement,  135 


Illiteracy  in  Middle  West,  353 

Immigrants,  277;  idealism,  264 

Immigration,  146,  215,  316 

Indian  guides,  17 

Indian  policy,   10 

I-idian  question,  early,  9 

Indian  reservations,  278 

Indian  trade,  6,  13,  14;  Middle 
West,  143,  144 

Indian  wars,  9;  New  England  and, 
69;  Ohio  Valley  and,  167 

Indiana,  character,  232;  constitu 
tion,  282;  elements  in  settlement, 
223-224;  settlement,  134 

Indianapolis,  162,  229 

Indians,  buffer  state  for  England, 
131,  134;  congresses  to  treat 
with,  15 ;  effects  of  trades  on,  13 ; 
hunting  Indians  with  dogs,  95; 
influence  on  Puritans  and  New 
England,  44;  Middle  West  and, 
133,  134;  society,  13 

Individualism,  30,  32,  37,  78,  125, 
140,  203,  254,  259,  271,  273,  302, 
306;  in  the  Old  West,  107;  reac 
tion  against,  307;  Upland  South, 
165 

Industrial  conditions,  280,  281, 
285;  Middle  West,  149,  154; 
Mississippi  Valley,  194,  201; 
Ohio  Valley  and,  175 

Industry,  captains  of,  and  large 
undertakings,  258,  259,  260;  con- 
trol,  318 

Inland  waterways,  202 

Insurgent  movement,  327 

Intellectual  life  and  the  frontier, 
37 

Intercolonial  congresses,  15 

Interior  and  coast,  antagonisms, 
110 

Internal  commerce,  171,  188 

Internal  improvements,  27,  28,  29, 
111,  170,  172,  216,  257;  after 


INDEX 


367 


1812  to  break  down  barrier  to 
West,  195;  Old  West,  109 

Internal  trade,  Old  West,  108,  109 

Iowa,  141,  143;  elements  and 
growth,  229;  settlement,  137 

Ipswich,  56 

Irish,  350 

Iron  mines  in  Middle  West,  152 

Iron  ore,  313 

Iroquois  Indians,  13,  80 

Irrigation,  258,  279 

Isms,  239 

Izard,  Ralph,  274 

Jackson,  Andrew,  105,  168,  173, 
189,  206,  213,  216,  241,  252,  253, 
268,  326;  personification  of  fron 
tier  traits,  252,  254 

Jackson,  Stonewall,  105 

Jacksonian  democracy,  192,  302, 
342-343 

James  River,  84,  90;  settlement,  93 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  93,  105,  114, 
268;  conception  of  democracy, 
250,  251;  on  England  and  the 
Mississippi,  186;  on  the  pioneer 
in  Congress,  253;  on  the  impor 
tance  of  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
188 

44  Jim  River  "  Valley,  145 

Johnson,  R.  M.,  192 

Johnson,  Sir  William,  81,  104 

Justice,  direct  forms  in  the  West, 
212 


Kansas,  142,  144,  146,  151;  Popu 
lists,  238;  settlers,  237 

Kansas  City,  151 

Kentucky,  19,  122,  162,  167,  168, 
169,  192,  225,  253;  slavery,  174 

King  Philip's  War  40,  46,  69 

Kipling,  Rudyard,  "  Toreloper," 
270;  "Son  of  the  English,"  262 


Labor,  combinations,  245 ;  composi 
tion  of  laboring  class,  316 
Labor  theorists,  303,  326 
Lamar,  L.  Q.  C  (1825-1893),  25 
Lancaster,  Mass.,  48,  57,  61 
Land,    328-329;    abundance,   274; 
abundance,   as   basis   of   democ 
racy,  191,  192;  alien  tenure,  110; 
free,    exhausted,    244-245;    free 
Western,  211,  259;  fundamental 
fact    in    Western    society,    211; 
"mongering,"  61;  sedalso  Public 
lands 

Land  companies,  123,  347 
Land   grants,   9;    for   schools  and 

colleges,  74;  to  railroads,  276 
Land  Ordinance  of  1785,  132 
Land  policies,  10 

Land  system,  "equality"  principle 
in    New    England,    61,    62,    63; 
Georgia,  97;  later  federal,  123; 
New  England,  54;  New  England 
conflicts,   75;    New  York   State, 
80;    North    Carolina,    95;    Old 
West,    122;    Pennsylvania,    101; 
Virginia,  91;  Virginia  grants  to 
societies,  85 
La  Salle,  180 
Laurentide  glacier,  129 
Law  and  order,  298,  344 
Leadership,    213,    291,    292,    307; 

educated,  286 
Lease,  Mary  Ellen,  240 
Legislation,  277,  307;  frontier  and, 
24;  Leicester,  59;  Leigh,  B.  W., 
115 

Lewis  and  Clark,  13,  17 
Liberty,  Bacon  on,  286;  for  univer 
sities,     287;      individual,     213; 
Western,  212 
Life  as  a  whole,  287 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  105,   135,   142, 
174,  206,  213,  217,  225,  241  268, 
304  356;   Douglas  debates  230; 


368 


INDEX 


embodiment  of  pioneer  period, 
255-256;  Ohio  Valley,  influence 
of,  175 

Lincoln,  C.  H ,  113 

Litchfield,  71,  76,  124 

Livingston  manor,  81,  82 

Locofocos,  303,  326,  348 

Log  cabin,  338 

"  Log  cabin  campaign,"  173 

London  Company,  301 

Loria,  Achille,  11 

Louisiana,  180,  208 

Louisiana  Purchase,  25,  34,  140, 
167,  213,  251;  effect  on  Missis 
sippi  Valley,  189-190 

Louisville,  162 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  on  Lincoln,  255 

Loyal  Land  Co.,  123,  182 

Lumber  industry,  152;  Wisconsin, 
234-235 

Lumbermen,  272,  273 

Lynch  law,  212,  272;  New  Eng 
land,  78 

McKinley,  William,  236,  237,  241 

Magnitude,  258,  260,  276 

Maine,  52-53 

Maine  coast,  79 

Mallet  brothers,  180 

Manila,  battle  of,  247 

Manorial  practice  in  New  York,  83 

Marietta,  124,  132,  223,  257 

"  Mark  colonies,"  70 

Marquette,  Jacques,  180 

Martineau,  Harriet,  214,  303,  339 

Massachusetts,  attempt  to  locate 
frontier  line,  39;  frontier,  65; 
frontier  towns,  42,  45,  53,  70; 
locating  towns  before  settlement, 
76 

Mather,  Cotton,  attitude  as  to  ad 
vancing  frontier,  63 

Mesabi  mines,  152,  234 

Mendon,  57 


Methodists,  238 

Mexico,  295 

Michigan,  135-136,  137;  develop 
ment  and  resources,  232;  settle 
ment,  226,  228 

Middle  region,  27;  in  formation  of 
the  Old  West,  79 ;  typical  Ameri 
can,  28 

Middle  West,  agriculture,  150; 
Canada  and,  128;  Civil  War  and, 
142;  early  society,  153-154;  edu 
cation,  282;  elements  of  settle 
ment  —  Northern  and  Southern, 
346,  351;  Europe  and,  282;  flow 
of  population  into,  132-133;  for 
ests,  130;  Germans  and,  137- 
138;  Germans  and  Scandina 
vians,  146;  idealism,  153;  immi 
grants  of  varied  nationalities, 
349;  importance,  126,  128;  in 
crease  of  settlement  in  the  fifties, 
142-143 ;  industrial  organism, 
149;  meaning  of  term,  126;  na 
tionalism,  142 ;  natural  resources, 
129 ;  New  England  element,  137 ; 
peculiarity  and  influence,  347; 
pioneer  democracy,  335;  settle 
ment,  135,  342;  slavery  question 
and,  139;  southern  zone,  138 

Migration,  21,  237,  337;  communal 
vs.  individual,  125;  crops,  149; 
interstate,  224;  labor,  62;  New 
England,  and  land  policy,  77 

Militant  expansive  movement,  105 

Military  frontier,  41,  47;  early 
form,  47;  Old  West,  significance, 
106-107;  Virginia  in  later  17th 
century,  83,  84 

Milwaukee,  137,  227,  236,  350 

Miner's  frontier,  12 

Mining  camps,  9 

Mining  laws,  10 

Minneapolis,  137,  151,  234 

Minnesota,  143,  144,  237 ;  economic 


INDEX 


369 


development,  234;  Historical  So 
ciety,  335,  338-339 

Missions  to  the  Indians,  79 

Mississippi  Company,  123,  182 

Mississippi  River,  7,  9,  142,  185, 
194,  345 

Mississippi  Valley,  10,  139,  166- 
167,  324;  beginning  of  stratifica 
tion,  197;  Civil  War  and,  201; 
democracy  and,  190;  early  popu 
lation,  183;  economic  progress 
after  1812,  194 ;  England's  efforts 
to  control,  180-181;  extent,  179; 
French  explorers  in,  180;  fron 
tiersmen's  allegiance,  186-187; 
idealism,  social  order,  203-204; 
industrial  growth  after  the  Civil 
War,  201-202;  political  power 
and  growth  from  1810  to  1840, 
193;  primitive  history,  179;  ques 
tion  of  severance  from  the  Union, 
187;  significance  in  American 
history,  177,  185 ;  slavery  struggle 
and,  201;  social  forces,  early, 
183 

Missouri,  192 

Missouri  Compromise,  140,  174,  226 

Missouri  Valley,  135 

Mohawk  Valley,  68,  82 

Monroe,  James,  150 

Monroe  Doctrine,  296;  germ,  168 

Monticello,  93 

Moravians,  95,  102 

Morgan,  J.  P.,  318 

Mormons,  263 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  207 

Nashaway,  57 

National  problem,  293 

Nationalism,  29 ;  evils  of,  157 ;  Mid 
dle  West  and,  142 

Nationalities,  mixture,  27;  replace 
ment  in  Wisconsin,  235 

Naturalization,  110 


Nebraska,  144,  145,  220;  settlers, 
237 

Negro,  295 

New  England,  27,  301 ;  back  lands, 
75;  coast  vs.  interior,  111;  colo 
nies  from,  124;  culmination  of 
frontier  movement,  78;  early  of 
ficial  frontier  line,  43;  economic 
life,  78;  effect  on  the  West,  36; 
foreign  element,  294;  frontier 
protection,  46-47;  frontier  types, 
43-44;  Greater  New  England,  66, 
70;  ideas,  and  Middle  West,  348; 
Indian  wars,  69;  land  system,  54; 
Middle  West  and,  347;  Ohio  set 
tlement  and,  223;  Old  West  and, 
68;  Old  West  and  interior  New 
England,  70;  pioneer  type,  239; 
streams  of  settlement  from,  215; 
two  New  Englands  of  the  forma 
tive  period  of  the  Old  West,  78- 
79 

New  Englanders  in  the  Middle 
West,  137;  in  Wisconsin  and  the 
lake  region,  228;  three  move 
ments  of  advance  from  the  coast, 
136;  Westernized,  215,  216 

New  Glarus,  236 

New  Hampshire,  69,  72,  77,  111 

New  Hampshire  grants,  77 

New  Northwest,  222 

New  Orleans,  136,  137,  167,  187, 
188,  189,  217,  295 

New  South,  218;  Old  West  and,  100 

New  West,  257 

New  York  City,  136,  195,  318 

New  York  State,  early  frontier,  43; 
lack  of  expansive  power,  80; 
land  system,  80;  settlement  from 
New  England,  83;  western,  230 

Newspapers  of  the  Middle  West, 
353 

Nitrates,  279 

Norfolk,  195 


370 


INDEX 


North  Carolina,  87,  106;  coast  vs. 
upland,  116;  in  Indiana  Settle 
ment,  224;  public  lands,  95;  set 
tlement,  94,  95 ;  slavery,  122 ;  tax 
ation,  118,  119 

North  Central  States,  126;  region 
as  a  whole,  341 

North  Dakota,  development,  237 

Northampton,  63 

Northfield,  53 

Northwest,  democracy,  356;  Old 
and  New,  222;  see  also  Old 
Northwest 

Northwest  Territory,  222 

Northwestern  boundary,  324 

Norton,  C.  E.,  208-209 

Norwegians,  232 

Nullification,  117,  254 

Ohio,  diversity  of  interests,  231- 
232;  elements  of  settlement,  223; 
history,  133-134;  New  England 
element,  223;  Southern  contribu 
tion  to  settlement,  223 

Ohio  Company,  123,  133,  141,  182, 
223 

Ohio  River,  5,  161 

Ohio  Valley,  104;  as  a  highway, 
162;  economic  legislation  and, 
170;  effects  on  national  expan 
sion,  166;  in  American  history, 
157;  influence  on  Lincoln,  175; 
part  in  making  of  the  nation, 
160;  physiography,  160-161;  re 
lation  to  the  South,  174;  reli 
gious  spirit,  164,  165;  stock  and 
settlement,  164 

On  wells,  297 

Oklahoma,  278,  297 

Old  National  road,  136 

Old  Northwest,  131,  132,  136,  221; 
as  a  whole,  241-242;  defined, 
218;  elements  of  settlement, 
222;  political  position,  236;  so 


cial  origin,  222-223;  Southern 
element  in  settlement,  223,  225- 
226;  turning  point  of  control, 
229 

"Old  South,"  166 

Old  West,  colonization  of  areas  be 
yond  the  mountains,  124;  conse 
quences  of  formation,  106;  New 
South  and,  100;  summary  of 
frontier  movement  in  17th  and 
early  18th  centuries,  98;  term 
denned,  68 

Old  World,  261,  267,  294,  299,  344, 
349;  effect  of  American  frontier, 
22;  West  and,  206,  210 

Opportunity,  37,  212,  239,  259-260, 
261,  263,  271-272,  342,  343 

Orangeburg,  96 

Ordinance  of  1787,  25,  132,  168, 
190,  223 

Oregon  country,  144 

Orient,  297 

Osgood,  H.  L.,  30 

Pacific  coast,  168,  219,  304 
Pacific  Northwest,  296 
Pacific  Ocean,  297,  315 
Packing  industries,  151 
Palatine  Germans,  5,  22,  100,  109, 

124;  New  York  State  and,  82 
Palisades,  71 
Panama  Canal,  295 
Panics,  279-280 
Paper   money,  32,    111,    121,   122, 

209 

Parkman,  Francis,  70,  72,  144,  163 
"  Particular  plantations,"  41 
Past,  lessons  of,  355 
Patroon  estates,  80 
Paxton  Boys,  112 
Pecks  "New  Guide  to  the  West," 

19 

Penn,  William,  262 
Pennsylvania,    23,    27;    coast    and 


INDEX 


371 


interior,  antagonisms,  112;  Ger 
man  settlement,  82,  100;  Great 
Valley  of,  68,  164;  land  grants, 
101;  new  Pennsylvania  of  the 
Great  Valley,  100;  Scotch-Irish, 
103,  104;  settlement  of  Old  West 
part,  83 

Pennsylvania   Dutch,  22,   100,   110 

Perrot,  Nicolas,  180 

Philadelphia,  106;  trade,  108 

Physiographic  provinces,  127 

Piedmont,   68;    Virginia,   87,  89 

Pig  iron,  152,  313 

Pine,  151 

Pine  belt  in  Middle  West,  143 

Pioneer  democracy,  lessons  learned, 
357;  Middle  West,  335 

Pioneer  farmers,  21,  206,  257 

Pioneers,  conservative  fears  about, 
251,  252;  contest  with  capitalist, 
325;  contrast  of  conditions,  279; 
deeper  significance,  338;  essence, 
271;  ideals  and  the  State  uni 
versity,  269;  Middle  West,  146, 
154;  Ohio  Valley,  167;  old 
ideals,  148;  sketch,  19 

Pittsburgh,  104,  127,  136,  154-155, 
161,  265,  299,  314,  324 

Plain  people,  256,  267 

Political  institutions,  243;  frontier 
and,  24 

Political  parties,  249,  324 

Polk,  J.  K.,  105,  192,  255 

Pontiac,  131,  144 

Poor  whites,  224 

Population  center,  222 

Populists,  32,  127,  147,  155,  203, 
220,  247,  277,  281,  305;  Kansas, 
238 

Prairie  Plains,  129 

Prairie  states,  239 

Prairies,  218,  236,  276,  348;  settle 
ment,  145,  147 

Presbyterians,  105,  106,  109,  164 


Presidency,  254 ;  Mississippi  Valley 

and,  192;  Ohio  Valley  and,  175; 

Old  Northwest  and,  222 
Prices,  313 

Princeton  college,  106 
Pritchett,  H.  S.,  282 
Privilege,     192;     conflict     against, 

120,   121 

Proclamation  of  1763,  181 
Progressive  Republican  movement, 

321 

Prohibitionists,  240 
"  Proletariat,"  285 
Property,  210;  as  basis  of  suffrage, 

249 

Prosperity,  281 
Protection.    See  Tariff 
Provinces,  geographic,  158 
Provincialism,  desirable,  157,  159 
Prussianism,  337,  356 
Public  lands,  25,  132,  303;  policy 

of   America,    26,    170;    Western 

lands,  first  debates  on,  191 
Public  schools,  266,  282 
Puget  Sound,  298 
Puritan  ideals,  73,  75,  78;  German 

conflict  with,  138 
Puritanism,  27 
Puritans  and  Indians,  44 
Purrysburg,  97 
Pyrichon,  John,  51,  52 

Quakers,  105,  112,  164;  in  settle 
ment  of  Indiana,  224 
Quebec,  Province  of,  131 
Quincy,  Josiah,  208 

Radisson,  Sieur  de,  180 

Railroads,  administration  by  re 
gions,  322;  Chicago  and,  150; 
continental,  247;  in  early  fifties, 
137;  land  grants  to,  276;  Mis 
sissippi  Valley,  304;  northwest 
ern,  145;  origin,  14;  speculative 


372 


INDEX 


movement,   276;    statistics,   314; 
western,  218 

Rancher's  frontier,  12,  16 
Ranches,  9,  16;  Virginia,  88 
Rappahannock  River,  84,  90;   set 
tlement,  93 
Reclamation,  298 
Reclamation  Service,  320 
Red  Cloud   (Indian),  144 
Red  River  valley,  145 
Redemptioners,  22,  90,  97,  100 
Reformers,  281,  324;   social,  262- 

263 

Regulation,  War  of  the,  248 
Regulators,  116,  119,  120,  212 
Religion  of  the  Middle  West,  345 
Religious  freedom  of  the  Old  West, 

121 
Religious  spirit,  Ohio  Valley,  164, 

165;  Upland  South,  164,  165 
Rensselaerswyck,  80 
Representation,  114,  117,  120 
Republican  party,  327 
Research,  284,  287,  331 
Revolution,  American,  30 
Rhodes,  J.  F.,  24 
Richmond,  Va,,  108 
Rights,    equal,    326-327,    338;    of 

man,  192 

Ripley,  W.  Z.,  316 
Robertson,  James,  105,  187 
Rockefeller,  J.  D.,  260,  264-265 
Rocky  Mountains,  8,  9,  10,  298 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,  202,  204,  281, 
319,  327;  on  the  Mississippi  Val 
ley,     178;     "Winning     of     the 
West,"  67 
Root,  Elihu,  159 
Roxbury,  59 
Royce,  Josiah,  157,  358 
Rush,  Richard,  317 

St.  Louis,  151,  161,  229 
St.  Paul,  137,  234 


Salisbury,  Mass.,  56 

Salt,    17;     annual    pilgrimage    to 

coast  for,  17 
Salt  springs,  17,  18 
Salzburgers,  97 
Sandys,  Sir  Edwin,  301 
Sault  Ste.  Marie  Canal,  149 
Scalps,  Massachusetts  bounty  for, 

45 
Scandinavians,    263,    350;    Middle 

West,    146;    Western   life,   232- 

233,  234 
Schools,  early  difficulties,  107;  see 

also  Public  schools 
Schurz,  Carl,  337 
Science,  284,  330-331 
Scientific  farming,  294 
Scotch  Highlanders,  104;  Georgia, 

98 
Scotch-Irish,  5,  22,  71;    migration 

in  Great  Valley  and  Piedmont, 

103;    Pennsylvania,    104;    South 

Carolina,   97;    Virginia,   86,   91- 

92 
Scotch-Irish     Presbyterians,      105, 

109,  164 
Scovillites,  116 

Seaboard  cities,  194,  195,  196 
Seattle,  298 

"  Section  "  of  land,  123,  132 
Sectionalism,  27,  28,  52,  157,  215, 

220,  321 

Sections,  relation,  159 
Self-government,  169,  190,  207,  248, 

275 

Self-made  man,  219,  318 
Servants,  60,  353 
Service  to  the  Union,  358 
Settlement,    community    type,    73, 

74 

Settler,  20 

Sevier,  John,  105,  187 
Seward,  W.  H.,  141;  on  the  North- 

west,  230;  on  the  slavery  issue 


INDEX 


373 


in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  199, 
200 

Shays'  Rebellion,  112,  119,  122,  249 

Sheffield,  71 

Sheldon,  George,  58 

Shenandoah  Valley,  68,  90,  91,  92, 
99,  105 

Sherman,  W.  T.,  142 

Sibley,  H.  H.  (1811-1891),  272, 
273,  328 

Silver  movement,  238,  239,  329 

Simsbury,  63 

Singletary,  Amos,  240 

Sioux  Indians,  130 

Six  Nations,  15,  83 

Slavery  question,  24,  29,  98,  111, 
139,  304,  330;  compromise  move 
ment,  174;  democracy  and.  256; 
expansion,  174;  Middle  West 
and,  139;  Mississippi  Valley  and, 
198,  201;  Northwest  and,  230; 
slaves  as  property,  115;  Virginia 
and  North  Carolina,  122 

Smith,  Major  Lawrence,  84 

Social  control,  277 

Social  forces,  in  American  history, 
311;  mode  of  investigating,  330; 
on  the  Atlantic  coast,  295; 
political  institutions  and, 
243 

Social  mobility,  355 

Social  order,  Mississippi  Valley, 
203-204;  new,  263 

Social  reformers,  262-263 

Socialism,  246,  277,  307,  321 

Society,  backwoods,  212;  rebirth 
of  in  the  West,  205 

Soils,  278,  279 ;  search  for,  18 

Solid  South,  217 

South,  27,  166,  218;  contribution 
to  settlement  of  Old  Northwest 
(Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois),  223, 
225-226;  Ohio  Valley  and,  174; 
solid,  217;  transforming  forces, 


295;  West  and,  196,  197;  see 
also  Upland  South 

South  Carolina,  174;  condition  of 
antagonism  between  coast  and  ul 
terior,  116;  land  system,  town 
ships,  96;  trade,  108 

South  Dakota,  development,  237 

Southeastern  Europe,  294,  299,  316 

Southerners  and  the  Middle  West, 
133-134,  135,  138 

Southwest,  297 

Spain,  167,  181,  246;  Mississippi 
Valley  and,  184,  185 

Spangenberg,  A.  G.,  17 

Spanish  America  181,  182,  295 

Spanish  frontier,  125 

Spanish  War,  246 

Speculation,  319 

Spoils  system,  32,  254 

Spotswood,  Alexander,  22,  88,  90, 
91,  113,  247;  Mississippi  Valley 
and,  180 

Spotsylvania   County,   Va.,   90 

Spreckles,  Claus,  265 

Squatter-sovereignty,  140 

Squatters,  272,  343;  doctrines,  273, 
328;  ideal,  320;  Middle  West, 
137;  Ohio  Valley,  170;  Pennsyl 
vania  in  1726,  101 

Stark,  John,   103-104 

State  historical  societies,  340 

State  lines,  127 

State  universities,  221,  354;  as  safe 
guard  of  democracy,  286;  Michi 
gan,  233;  peculiar  power,  283- 
284;  pioneer  ideals  and,  269,  281 

States,  checkerboard,  218;  frontier 
pioneers'  demand  for  statehood, 
248;  groups,  159;  new  states  vs. 
Atlantic  States,  207;  System  of, 
168 

Staunton,  Va.,  92 

Steam  navigation,  7,  135,  171 

Steel,  313 


374 


INDEX 


Steel  and  iron  industry,  152 

Stockbridge,  79 

Stoddard,  Solomon,  45 

Success,  288,  309 

Sudbury,  39 

Suffrage,  192,  216;  basis,  249; 
frontier  and  extension,  30;  man 
hood,  250,  352 

Superior,  Lake,  180,  314;  iron 
mines,  152 

Swedes,   233 

Symmes  Purchase,  223 

Talleyrand,  299 

Taney,  R.  B.,  141 

Tariff,  25,  27,  170,  172,  197,  216 

Taylor,  Zachary,  255 

Tecumthe,  134,  144 

Tennessee,  122,  168,  187,  225,  252, 
253;  democracy,  192 

Tennyson's  "  Ulysses,"  310 

Territories,  system  of,  168,  169 

Texas,  168 

Thomas,  J.  B.,  174 

Tocqueville,  A.  C.  H.  C.  de,  153, 
275,  303,  343 

Toledo,  Ohio,  231 

Toleration,  355 

Town  meeting,  62 

Towns,  legislating  into  existence, 
125;  locating,  Massachusetts,  76; 
New  England  and  Virginia,  41; 
new  settlements  in  New  England, 
55;  South  Carolina,  96;  typical 
form  of  establishing  in  New  Eng 
land,  74;  Virginia,  85,  86 

Trader's  frontier,  12;  effects  fol 
lowing,  12;  rapidity  of  advance, 
12,  13 

Trading   posts,    14 

Transportation,  148;  Great  Lakes, 
150 

Tryon,  William,  106 

Tuscarora  War,  94,  95 


Ulstermen,  103 

Unification  of  the  West,  215 

United  States,  collection  of  na 
tions,  158;  development  since 
1890,  311;  federal  aspect,  159; 
fundamental  forces,  311;  original 
contribution  to  society,  281-282; 
wealth,  312 

U.  S.  Steel  Corporation,  152-153, 
247,  265,  313 

Universities,  duties,  292;  function, 
287;  influence  of  university  men, 
285;  need  of  freedom,  287;  pres 
sure  of  democracies  on,  283; 
State  and,  286;  see  also  State 
universities 

Upland  South,  164;  religious  spirit, 
164,  165 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  254,  326 

Van  Rensselaer  manor,  81 

Vandalia,  229 

Verendryes,  the,  180 

Vermont,  69,  72,  77,  78,  111,  122, 
136 

Vermonters  in  Wisconsin  and 
Michigan,  228 

Vicksburg,  201 

Vigilance  committees,  212 

Vinton,  S.  F.,  141,  229 

Virginia,  301:  early  attempt  to  es 
tablish  frontier,  41 ;  Indian  wars, 
69-70;  inequalities,  coast  vs. 
interior,  113;  interest  in  Missis 
sippi  Valley,  182 ;  land  grants, 
91;  land  grants  to  societies,  85; 
Piedmont,  society,  95;  Piedmont 
portions,  87,  89;  settlement  in 
latter  part  of  17th  century,  83; 
slavery,  122;  two  Virginias  in 
later  17th  century,  94;  Western 
democracy  and,  250 

Virginia  Convention  of  1829-30, 
28,  31 


INDEX 


375 


Visions,  270,  331,  339-340 
Voyage  urs,  17 

Wachovia,  95 

Walker,  F.  A.,  128 

War  of  1812,  168,  213 

Washington,  George,  92,  124;  Mis 
sissippi  Valley  and,  181,  182, 
194,  1%,  324;  Ohio  Valley  and, 
163,  167 

Wealth,  213-214,  219,  288,  319; 
democracy  versus,  192;  in  poli 
tics,  173;  United  States,  312 

Wells  (town),  47 

"Welsh  tract,"  97 

Wentworth,  Benning,  77 

West,  American  ideals  and,  290; 
beginning  of,  6;  center  of  in 
terest,  327;  constructive  force, 
206;  contributions  to  democracy, 
243;  factor  in  American  history, 
1,  3;  ideals,  209,  214,  267;  in- 
definiteness  of  term,  126;  insur 
gent  voice,  319;  main  streams  of 
settlement,  215;  mark  of  New 
England,  36;  phase  of  division, 
216-217;  population,  35;  prob 
lem  of,  205;  South  and,  196, 
197;  war  ings  against,  208,  209; 
Middle  West;  see  also  Old  West; 
Old  Northwest 

West  Virginia,  114 

Westchester  County,  N.  Y.,  81 


Western  colleges,  36 

Western  life,  dominant  forces,  222 

Western  Reserve,  124,  133 

Western  spirit,  310 

"Western  Waters,"  161,  206,  302; 
men  of  freedom  and  independ 
ence,  183 

"Western  World,"  161,  166,  206, 
302;  basis  of  its  civilization,  177 

Wheat,  329;  areas,  149 

Whig  party,  27,  173,  3C4,  351 

White,  Abraham,  240 

White,  Hugh,  192 

Whitman,  Walt,  336 

Wilderness,  262,  269,  270,  279 

Wilkinson,  James,  169,  187 

Williams,  John   (1664-1729),  70 

Williams,  Roger,  262 

Windsor,  76 

Winthrop,  John,  62 

Wisconsin,  137,  138,  218,  294,  341; 
development  and  elements,  233- 
234;  German  element,  227,  228, 
236;  New  England  element,  228; 
settlement,  226,  227 

Wood,  Abraham,  98 

Woodstock,  59 

World's  fairs,  156 

World-politics,  246,  315 

Wyoming  Valley,  79,  124 

Yemassee  War,  95 

"  Young  America  "  doctrine,  140 


Qt 


A««.~ 
000380095     o 


3  1158  009935767 


